Limitations to Sql Server 7?

We do production support for an ancient application that almost nobody ever reports problems with... It ships with MSDE 2000 and most people have never had issues with that...

Today we found out that one customer's monthly data is too large for MSDE 2000 (They weren't specific, somewhere in the 3-6GB range), so the customer installed Sql Server 7 and used that. They weren't specific on the edition they installed, but I can find out.

So I've been Googling (Dang... I mean "Live Searching") for SQL Server 7 limitations by edition, hoping I could blame the customer's version choice. I can't find it anywhere, can someone point me in the right direction?

what about SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition, MSRP is about $700.00 USD
no db size limit, uses 2 cpus, 3 gigs ram.

SQL 7 is old... is it even still supported??

I'd test with SQL 2005 and moveto that.

Believe me, I know... I'm trying to find some reference material to indicate that SQL 7 is insufficient for this customer's needs.  The customer doesn't care what's supported; heck, the application he's using (the one that comes with MSDE) will be considered Legacy in a year.

well in general I would say that they have chosen to use an unsupported and untested configuration and they do so at thier own risk.
as MSDE is based on SQL Server 2000 then they are very luck that it works at all as SQL server 7 was the version *BEFORE* 2000 and that is always the wrong way to go....

has any update / maint release been offered in the past to them?  is there an upgrade path for them ??
are there any other clients using the same package who might want an upgrade ??

if there is a reasonable business case for it I would do a test with SQL 2005 and offer that to all curent users at a low cost as long as you did not have to modify the main app.  just provide a backup / attach to new server support patch kinda thing.
then if you have a number of takers on that see if it makes good business logic to do a new version with the normal stuff, UI updates, reports etc....

if it's just one customer and they like what they have done then just send them a polite "this is very old and not supported but if it works good for you" note.

the main thing is I bet MSFT is not suppporting sql 7 any longer .... figure 7, 2000,2005 and 2008 will be out by end of year?
so SQL 7 is at end of life support or darn close now. Heck I recall that V7 came out in like late 1998 ??
I know cause I built a quad cpu system to run it for an ISP I worked at ... it was the last project I did for them before I left them...
it was an HP server that had 3 powersupplies and seperate giant slide-out boards for the RAM, and the CPU's where like P 3 Zeons as I recall....  SCSI hotswap raid and all that stuff that today is way old....