ASP can be freely intermixed with static HTML pages. This means that you are free to extend the capability of ASP pages through compiled code. Such DLL's can be prepared simply using many development languages including Visual Basic. The COM objects provide an excellent object-oriented programming interface which makes it easy to work with the kinds of data. ADO is a technology for databases which provides a common programming interface for virtually ANY kind of database or data store.
Some people believe that CGI is becoming an obsolete technology.
While we won't go that far, we have been genuinely impressed with the simplicity and extensibility of ASP based Web pages. Third parties are now providing ASP support for a variety of operating systems and servers. Halcyon Software, Inc supports ASP on several operating systems. We started our search for a shopping cart for our own clients just this way, but soon found disappointment. Generally they lack even the most basic features.