you'll probably get even more benefit by pulling the UI out of access as well and using VB (or C# if you're so inclined) to create a new front end. If you keep your front end in Access, then you'll end up with linked tables from Access to the SQL Server, which is one more layer, and could negate any performance you're going to get out of SQL Server (I could be wrong about this though). One thing you could do, is move the data to SQL Server, continue to use the Access front end, meanwhile build a new front end as a desktop app using VB.NET and ADO.NET to talk to the SQL Server, then when it's ready, shut down the Access front end, and deploy the new app.

-tg