Nuclear stopping in Au+Au collisions at alternating gradient synchrotron energies is studied in the framework of the modified ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics transport model, in which mean field potentials of both formed and “preformed” hadrons (from string fragmentation), medium-modified nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections, and cluster recognition criteria are considered. It is found that nuclear stopping is influenced by both the mean field potentials of formed and “preformed” hadrons and the medium modification of nucleon-nucleon elastic cross section. The free proton number is higher than that from the experimental rapidity distribution in the central region of rapidity distribution, which can be understood by considering the new criteria of judging fragments.