For what it's wortjh, I used to be able to read small fonts comfortably when I was 37. Not that I'm 44, I can't. I read Hacker News with Ctrl-+, and I'm happy that Chrome remembers my zoom setting between visits, or I probably wouldn't have visited very often.
I love that feature from Chrome too. I zoom about 80% of the sites I visit now, and I love how Chrome remembers that preference for some of my most frequented sites.