Using ADO to access a closed Excel Spreadsheet

I've been doing searches for awhile, and getting mostly examples like this one:
http://www.exceltip.com/st/Use_a_clo...Excel/432.html
I'm not good with SQL and was hoping to find something simple so I could finish what I'm doing quickly.

I need to connect to a workbook/sheet without opening it and find the last used row(If Cell(1,1) is empty, it will be a blank row). Then on the next row down I need to copy some text into a few columns worth of cells.

If I have to use SQL, I guess I could use some pointers. I learned a tiny bit of it once to get through another project but it gave me a headache and I stink at it :p

Oh and I'm actually using 97-VBA if that limits me at all.

Thanks

This willl return the last row with data in it.

VB Code:

MaxRowNumber = ActiveSheet.Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row

Here is one of my functions that I wrote with ADO to connect to an
excel spreadsheet.
CnnE = ADO Public connection.
frmMain.lblPath = path/filename to the spreadsheet - can be hard coded.
Function returns true when the connection is made.

VB Code:

Public Function ExcelConnect() As Boolean
'<RR 03/17/03>
    On Error GoTo No_Bugs
 
    If CnnE.State = adStateClosed Then
        CnnE.ConnectionString = "Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; DATA Source=" & frmMain.lblPath & ";Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;"
        CnnE.CursorLocation = adUseClient
        CnnE.Open
        ExcelConnect = True
    Else
        CnnE.Close
        CnnE.ConnectionString = "Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; DATA Source=" & frmMain.lblPath & ";Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;"
        CnnE.CursorLocation = adUseClient
        CnnE.Open
        ExcelConnect = True
    End If
    Exit Function
    
No_Bugs:
    
    ExcelConnect = False
 
End Function