Com+ & Dotnet

i have been developing using "classic" asp and sql server for the last few years. i have managed to remain completely ignorant of things like COM for all that time. last night i read a bit about COM/COM+ and was interested to know that i have in fact been using COM everytime get a recordset etc.

i wish to know more. i also dimly aware of .net, and have been thinking of learning a bit about that. my question is does the .net stuff use COM or does it "replace" it in some way (that statement may reveal just how little i currently know about this all). the COM book is interesting but i don't want to learn things which are becoming defunct.