Either you misread something or are misremembering it. The Age of Legends was the 2nd Age. The Age before the Age of Legends was the 1st Age, and there are a number of hints that it is the present day modern world. The events surrounding Artur Hawkwing's rise and his empire's collapse are nowhere near major enough to be an Age transition.
Major ta'veren happen whenever the pattern needs them, which depends entirely on what's happening in the world and how closely it corresponds to what's "supposed" to happen, and sometimes on whether any major world changing events are supposed to be coming up.
The intervals are 1000 years from the Breaking to the Trolloc Wars, 1000 years from the Trolloc Wars to Artur Hawkwing, and 1000 years from Artur Hawkwing to Rand. Quite a number of ta'veren came along in those 3000 years, some of them major, Hawkwing was just the most major of them before Rand. In any case, while both the Trolloc Wars and the collapse of Hawkwing's empire were major historical events, neither of them is anywhere near as cataclysmic as a true Age transition. Compare either of them to the Breaking of the World or Tarmon Gai'don and they just don't measure up. Changing from one Age to another is Serious Business, and continent-wide but otherwise mostly mundane warfare is not sufficient, and if it were we would have seen several references to those periods being different Ages rather than the actual total of 0.
Oh, and before you say anything about the regularity of the 1000 year intervals, that's due to Ishamael's release cycle, not the Wheel turning. Ishamael was only partly bound, with about 40 years of freedom every 1000 years. He was free for some time immediately after the Sealing of the Bore, was free 1000 years later and started the Trolloc Wars, and was free again to become Artur Hawkwing's adviser and turn him against the White Tower, set up the Seanchan, and ensure his empire's collapse. If Tarmon Gai'don weren't coming, he would be free again about this time anyway to unleash some new nastiness on civilization, and all of this has nothing to do with Age transitions or the length of the Wheel's spokes.