title: sql server 2000: getting top N rows
body: <p>I'm running a simple query that gets the top 5000 rows of some table:</p>
  
  <pre><code>  SELECT TOP 5000 
           accountid, account, accountmanagerid, mainphone, alternatephone, fax, email, webaddress, createuser, modifyuser, createdate, modifydate, addressid, shippingid 
      FROM sysdba.account 
     WHERE 1 = 1 
       AND 1 = 1 
  ORDER BY accountid asc
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This perfectly worked on sql server 2008, but unfortunately now I find myself trying to run this formerly working script against SQL Server 2000. It seems to reject the top command.</p>
  
  <p>What should I do to get back my 5000 rows on this version of the sql server?</p>