i've been having a lot of trouble connecting to a dbase III file. here is my code

Set conDBF = New ADODB.Connection
conDBF.Provider = "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0"
conDBF.Properties("Data Source") = cdlMain.FileName
conDBF.Properties("Jet OLEDB:Engine Type") = 11
conDBF.Open strCon

when i run this, i get an error stating that the selected file is an unrecognized database format. i tried the same thing with an excel file and got the same results. does anyone have any suggestion?