Microsoft and Comcast are reportedly interested in starting a joint venture with AOL.

According to unconfirmed reports, Google and Comcast have teamed up to make an offer to start a joint venture with AOL that would see the three companies jointly control AOL’s Web services.

The news comes after weeks of speculation that Microsoft was negotiating a similar arrangement with AOL. It suggests that AOL is becoming a pawn in the emerging battle between Microsoft and Google.

AOL, which was once synonymous with Internet access for many Americans, has recently been making moves to become more relevant and secure more advertising dollars by opening up more of its content and services to non-subscribers.

The company once had almost 27 million Internet access subscribers in the US. At the last count, that number was less than 21 million. But that’s still enough people to make AOL, which runs Google Adsense advertising on its pages, the only company to provide a material amount of Google’s revenue.

Google said money from its partnership with AOL brought in 11% of its revenue in H1 2005, and 12% of revenue in 2004.That equates to $290 million on Google’s top line in the six months to June 30, 2005.

For Google to pursue a marriage with AOL could be viewed in that context as defensive. If Microsoft were to gain a significant interest in AOL, the Google relationship’s days would certainly be numbered.

Still, Google and AOL would make strange bedfellows indeed. AOL’s specialty, and arguably its downfall, has been making the Internet easier to use for novices, and keeping its subscribers on its own segment of the Internet for as long as possible.

Google, on the other hand, is almost the diametrical opposite, a geek-friendly post-dot-com window onto the Web that was defined by its lack of clutter and the sheer breadth of information it enabled access to.

That said, Google has been playing catch-up with the likes of AOL, Yahoo and MSN over the last few years, by launching more portal-style services such as shopping, instant messaging, message boards and news.