Done Loading freeze, MC 1.2.5 + Forge 3.3.8 Fresh Install

Hello. I'm having issues getting Forge to work. I've taken a completely fresh installation of Minecraft, downloaded the latest recommended build for clients (minecraftforge-client-3.3.8.152), and followed the instructions for proper installation (take the contents of the forge zip and drop them into the minecraft jar). However, I cannot get pasted the loading screen, as the client freezes at a Done Loading screen. Apparently this was an issue in the past with 1.2.5, but no one seems to have had a satisfactory solution at the time other than to roll back to a previous version.

What's most infuriating is that Forge had previously worked for me until this afternoon, when the Done Loading freeze started occurring.

I am not using any other mods at this time, and the entire setup is just a vanilla installation of Minecraft with Forge newly installed.

You didnt delete meta-inf

How very silly of me. It's been awhile since I had modded Minecraft, and I forgot that meta-inf was a directory and not a file; not knowing much about the inner-workings of Minecraft, I thought it was something like a .ini that's occasionally created in .minecraft and not a directory in minecraft.jar.

Thank you for your help.