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