Finding Last Updated With A Timestamp

Hi All

I know an SQL Server timestamp seems to be as useful as rocking horse for
show jumping, but I'm hoping you know a 'fudge' to get me round a problem or
at least confirm that it isn't possible.

I have 2 tables, one called ACCOUNTS and one called STOCK.

These tables have the usual ints, varchars, etc and have a timestamp field
as well.

My end user wants to see a simple list of the details in these tables
(individually - no joins present here), but sorted from most recently
updated to never touched.

As the timestamp seems to update each time a transaction hits it I though
this would be perfect, but I've had the following mixed results:

1) I did a simple ORDER BY TIMESTAMP DESC, but because the order is
alphanumeric I don't get a true 'recent to old' list.

2) So I did ORDER BY CAST(TIMESTAMP AS INT) DESC. There is a numeric sort
now, but the timestamp values seem to be hit and miss so that an account
that I know should be near the top is around about the middle.

Do you know how I can achieve the results I want?

Is the timestamp a waste of time?

Thanks

Robbie