He was the first to prove that a finite bound exists. This is a huge, huge deal, since taking the answer from immensely large but finite to 2 is much easier than establishing a finite bound in the first place (as evidenced by the rapid decline in the bound from 70 million to somewhere around 250 in the last year). So, I wouldn't call it "just" getting us closer. It'll probably be proved some time in the next decade or so, and the conjecture was first made in the mid 1800s.