Here’s a simple script that I use often – a quick hitter to find table row counts, that doesn’t use the Select Count(*). It uses the sysindexes table thus the reason it’s called “fairly accurate”.
SELECT
[TableName] = so.name,
[RowCount] = MAX(si.rows)
FROM
sysobjects so,
sysindexes si
WHERE
so.xtype = 'U'
AND
si.id = OBJECT_ID(so.name)
GROUP BY
so.name
ORDER [...]