Well, I've been playing with it and even though it gives diffuse shadows
that are as wide as I would expect, I can't get an area light to illuminate
a wider area of a plane no matter how wide I make the light. Here's the
original (slight changes so I could work with it) and one I made out of the
stock insert file. They both don't work the way you want them to. I suggest
a line of regular lights.

////////////// Camera //////////////////////
camera {                                  //
        right      < -1.333, 0.0, 0.0 >   //
        up         <  0.0, 1.0, 0.0 >     //
        direction  <  0.0, 0.0, 1.0 >     //
        location   <  0.0, 12.0, 0.0 >     //
        look_at    <  0.0, 0.0, 0.0 >     //
       }                                  //
////////////// end Camera //////////////////

/*
light_source
{
  0//pos
  color rgb 1.0//color
  area_light
  x*100, z//area
  100, 1//#lights
  adaptive 0
  jitter
  translate < 0, 1, 0 >
}
*/

///*
light_source
{
  0*x // light's position (translated below)
  color rgb 1.0  // light's color
  // <widthVector> <heightVector> nLightsWide mLightsHigh
  area_light
  <5, 0, 0> <0, 0, 2> // lights spread out across this distance (x * z)
  2, 2                // total number of lights in grid (4x*4z = 16 lights)
  adaptive 0          // 0,1,2,3...
  jitter              // adds random softening of light
  translate < 0, 2, 0 >   // <x y z> position of light
}
file://*///you may have to fix this line if it says 'file'

///////////////////////////// Plane /////////////////////////////////
plane { <0.0, 1.0, 0.0 >, 0.0 pigment { rgb < 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 > } } //
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////////////////  Sphere  ///////////
sphere  {
  < 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 >, 0.5
  texture { pigment { rgb 1 }
            finish  { phong 0.25 }
             }
    }
///////////////////////////////end Sphere

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