Etymon, to use your example, you'll be looking at something like this:
strSQL = "SELECT TOP 5 * FROM FORUM_MEMBERS ORDER BY M_POSTS DESC;"
Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.RecordSet")
rs.Open strSQL, my_Conn
rs.MoveNext
rs.MoveNext
'Now you're in the third record, so you can do whatever you want with it
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
This is basically what ruirib is referring to.