I kept one machine running with 5,000 nodes (plus one spare). After checking the numbers, I realized that if I sold my machines (RAM is very expensive right now, even the old one) and bought ANT instead (which I actually did in the opposite order), I would get more tokens than I could mine in over 5 years at the current rate.
So I don’t see how mining ANT is worth it for regular users anymore. The only real purpose is to generate new tokens that you can use to upload to the network without using an exchange for buying ETH, and then give those tokens to friends according to the method described here: Giveaways Made Easy: ANT Prepaid Upload Coupons
Check out the Impossible Futures!