Well I solved my problem.  I had copied the code from the web and it
had "Excel 9.0".  I have WP2000 which requires "Excel 8.0".

The purpose of my exercise was to search an Excel range, looking for
one record (Part Number) and returning the Description from the cell
next to it.

After getting past the first error, I keep getting 'Syntax error
(missing operator) in query expression'.

After searching though some Access message boards, I discovered I had
to put the filter string (MyPartNum) in single quotes.

Sub TestGetDesc()
Call GetDesc("Widget1", "")
End Sub

Sub GetDesc(MyPartNum, MyDesc As String)

Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Dim NoOfRecords As Long
Dim SQLText As String

SQLText = "SELECT PART_NO, DESC FROM `MyInvRng`" _
& "WHERE PART_NO = '" & MyPartNum & '"
'MyPartNum is enclosed with double quote followed by a single quote

' Open the database
Set db = OpenDatabase("C:\My Documents\MyInv.xls", False, False, "Excel
8.0")
' Retrieve the recordset
Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(SQLText)

' Determine the number of retrieved records
With rs
    .MoveLast
    NoOfRecords = .RecordCount
    .MoveFirst
End With

'MsgBox (rs.RecordCount & vbCr & rs!PART_NO & " " & rs!Desc)

MyDesc = rs!Desc

'MsgBox (MyDesc)

' Cleanup
rs.Close
db.Close

Set rs = Nothing
Set db = Nothing

End Sub