As I mentioned in another post, I prefer the #import directive, but some
playing around got the following to work.  I used some of the COM support
classes because I *hate* dealing directly with BSTR and VARIANT.  I didn't
really do all that much testing, but the following (with an appropriate
connection string and query string) retrieved and printed the first column
of the first row in the recordset...

/*
test.cpp, compiles with MSVC.NET...
cl /GX test.cpp /link ole32.lib comsupp.lib
*/

#include <windows.h>
#include <initguid.h>
#include "adoid.h"
#include "msado15.h"
#include <comdef.h>
#include <comutil.h>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

struct COM_Init {
   COM_Init()  { CoInitialize(NULL); }
   ~COM_Init() { CoUninitialize();   }
} COM_Init_;

static void check_hr(HRESULT hr) {
   if (FAILED(hr)) throw hr;
}

template <class T> static void safe_rel(T& t) {
   if (!t) return;
   t->Release();
   t = NULL;
}

void safe_rel_rs(ADORecordset*& rs) {
   if (!rs) return;

   long s = 0;

   if (SUCCEEDED(rs->get_State(&s)))
       if (adStateOpen == s)
           rs->Close();

   safe_rel(rs);
}

static string bstr2stl(const _bstr_t& b) {
   const char* c = b.operator const char *();
   return c ? c : "";
}

int main(void)
{
   ADORecordset* rs = NULL;
   ADOFields* flds = NULL;
   ADOField* f = NULL;

   try {
       HRESULT hr = S_OK;

       hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_CADORecordset, NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IADORecordset, (void**)&rs);
       check_hr(hr);

       _variant_t connect = _bstr_t("Your_Connection_String");
       _variant_t source  = _bstr_t("Your_SQL_SELECT");
       hr = rs->Open(source, connect, adOpenForwardOnly,
adLockReadOnly, -1);
       check_hr(hr);

       check_hr(rs->get_Fields(&flds));

       _variant_t val;
       check_hr(flds->get_Item(_variant_t(0L), &f));
       check_hr(f->get_Value(&val));
       cout << bstr2stl((_bstr_t)val) << endl;
   }
   catch(HRESULT hr) { cerr << "COM Failure: " << hr << endl; }
   catch(...)        { cerr << "exception" << endl; }

   safe_rel(f);
   safe_rel(flds);
   safe_rel_rs(rs);

   return 0;
}