If you want to by pass the time and resources it takes to count(*) your 3million row tables.  Try this per SQL SERVER Central by Kendal Van Dyke.
Row Counts Using sysindexes 
If you're using SQL 2000 you'll need to use sysindexes like so:
-- Shows all user tables and row counts for the current database 
-- Remove OBJECTPROPERTY function call to include system objects 
SELECT o.NAME,
  i.rowcnt 
FROM sysindexes AS i
  INNER JOIN sysobjects AS o ON i.id = o.id 
WHERE i.indid < 2  AND OBJECTPROPERTY(o.id, 'IsMSShipped') = 0
ORDER BY o.NAME
If you're using SQL 2005 or 2008 querying sysindexes will still work but Microsoft advises that sysindexes may be removed in a future version of SQL Server so as a good practice you should use the DMVs instead, like so:
-- Shows all user tables and row counts for the current database 
-- Remove is_ms_shipped = 0 check to include system objects 
-- i.index_id < 2 indicates clustered index (1) or hash table (0) 
SELECT o.name,
  ddps.row_count 
FROM sys.indexes AS i
  INNER JOIN sys.objects AS o ON i.OBJECT_ID = o.OBJECT_ID
  INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_partition_stats AS ddps ON i.OBJECT_ID = ddps.OBJECT_ID
  AND i.index_id = ddps.index_id 
WHERE i.index_id < 2  AND o.is_ms_shipped = 0 ORDER BY o.NAME