Mdac 2.8 And Sql 2005 Cursor Performace Issue

Hello

I have a VB6 application using classic ado (MDAC 2.8) for connecting
ms sql 2000 server. Application uses a lot of server side cursors. Now
I want to switch to ms sql 2005 server but I have noticed very serious
performance problem. Sql profiler results of execution of following
commands:

declare @p1 int
set @p1=180150131
declare @p3 int
set @p3=1
declare @p4 int
set @p4=16388
declare @p5 int
set @p5=22221
exec sp_cursoropen @p1 output,N' Select ... from ... where .... order
by ...',@p3 output,@p4 output,@p5 output
select @p1, @p3, @p4, @p5

on sql server 2000:

CPU: 234
Reads:82515
Writes:136
Duration:296

and on sql server 2005:

CPU: 4703
Reads:678751
Writes:1
Duration:4867

Both databases are identical, the servers runs on the same machine
(Pentium 2,8 Ghz, 2 GB RAM) with only one client connected. On forums
I've read that Microsoft doesn't recommend using server side cursors
on sql 2005 but is there any way to increase performance to some
acceptable level?

thanks in advance

szymon strus