Today I was reading(I always read Paul Randal).
http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Which-index-will-SQL-Server-use-to-count-all-rows.aspx
I learned that whenever you query select count(*) it will select the the best plan... as
if no index ---no option -table scan
INDEX: choose the smallest possible index(if has multiple index) to achieve the lowest I/O cost.
you can also test this with
set statistics io on
Thanx.
Vinay