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So I am getting into Age of Sigmar by playing in a escalation league starting soon at my local hobby-shop with some new Nurgle Daemons.

I had a question though about the background and setting of AoS:

So I pretty sure I remember talking to a friend about AoS a few months ago when it was first released and one of the biggest things was that "the old world" didnt exist anymore, like there was a wierd chain of events including The Great Horned Rat usurping Slannesh? And then chaos like sorta won the big war by destroying the entire world and plugging all of the fragments of the remaining armies into the warp?

Thats correct right? That all of our battles in AoS are fragments of armies of the old world fighting in the warp right?

Uh... close. Ish. Sort of.
Chaos won in the End Times, the Old World was destroyed.
The horned rat ascended to the pantheon of chaos.
Sigmar survived, was guided to the mortal realms by Dracothian, an enormous star drake.
The realms are a bit of grey area right now - there's one for each wind of magic plus the realm of chaos, they're characterised by their wind but not defined in it - you still get snow in the realm of fire, for example.
Whether they are planets in their own right, or giant discworlds, plateaus, dyson spheres, etc. etc. isn't clear.

The denizens of the realms aren't all descendants of the Old World, but some are, and some only came into existence because of God-stuff after Sigmar arrived.
Sigmar set about looking for his old mates (the elemental incarnates/gods such as Alarielle, Grimnir, etc.), killed all the big stuff, everyone happy, millennia of postcard scenes.
Malerion (nee Malekith) is suspected of kidnapping Slaanesh at this point, despite saying he wouldn't.

Then Chaos turned up, smashed everything, SIgmar does a runner and sealed off his realm from the others, chaos smashes everything up and gets comfy while Sigmar builds his army of Stormcast. The first assault of the Stormcast was the start of the Realmgate Wars, which is the 'cycle' AoS is in right now.

And to add to what Roper said, all those Realms are connected through very numerous gates, some yet undiscovered.

As of now, we're in the summer campaign for the end of the Gates war, and while the Chaos is still proeminent on most Realms, the forces of Order have started rebuilding here in and there.

So how did Nagash and company make it through? I seem to recall that Nagash is now a bonafide death god, so I guess that's how he made it.

What about the Orcs/Orruks, grots and Ogors? Surely Sigmar didn't want them back, and they aren't part of Chaos.

As I understand it, when Sigmar built his celestial city around the remains of the old world all the lost souls gathered to it and were made flesh again. Even the greenskins and Ogors were brought back and "played nice" with the other races. (Not too strange for the mercenary-minded ogors but it's possible the lack of Gork and Mork made the greenskins docile)

It was later, during the age of Myth, when Sigmar explored the realms for other gods and incarnates that he found Gork and Mork in the beast realm. They became one god named Gorkamorka (though they split apart when they fight with eachother, a common occurrence), they were entombed in amber by a being made of living sap that called itself the god of the beast realm.

Sigmar slew the creature and freed Gorkamorka who in turn pledged his loyalty to Sigmar. This did not last.

It was after chaos defeated Sigmar's pantheon that Gorkamorka and the forces of destruction decided they had enough of "playing nice" and went their own way which meant a massive Waaagh throughout the realms. So now they're spread out everywhere, constantly fighting anything that moves and couldn't be happier.

Oh, the Ogor's worship Gorkamorka as well but the Maw is still alive. It has the power to create portals for them so they can go between realms without using the realm gates.

(@RoperPG, loved that "millennia of postcards scenes" line. )