By using ADODC/ADODB (or other database connection technology), you are just using the file as a database - you are not using Access in any way whatsoever.

For that kind of activity, you should not have any Reference to Access, and should not worry about versions etc. All you need to worry about is whether the Provider/Driver you specify in the connection string is installed (Jet is pre-installed by default, but not necessarily the 'right' version).