Ok, so I got our IT guy involved, and he found out the server was running 64bit Win2k3. Even if i nix this method, is there ANY way to...

Per this documentation: http://doc.ddart.net/mssql/sql70/sp_adda_17.htm

and your sample, I came up with this query:

USE master

GO

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver

@server = 'NORTHWIND',

@provider = 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',

...

Well, I had to uninstall and reinstall SQL Server EE to get this account to have access. But the permissions get messed up somehow when i am using SSMSEE...