I wouldn't say that it is nasty to configure, you need to configure
GLOBAL COMMANDS
appletalk routing eigrp <router id>
INTERFACE COMMANDS
appletalk cable-range N-N H.H (where N is cable range start-end, and H.H is suggested address)
appletalk zone <zone 1>
appletalk zone <zone 2>
appletalk zone <zone 3>
... (add as many zones as you want)
Not that hard to configure. It is fully routable across an Enterprise network, but there is no way that a service provider (ISP) is going to route your Appletalk to anyone else. You can use L2TP (layer 2 tunnelling protocol) to connect two subnets across the public Internet, and allow appletalk connectivity between them.
The big question is, why would you want to run appletalk. I can't wait until I can turn it off, the only thing holding us back is supporting legacy printing with old Mac OS. IP is the way to go.