in SQL7/SQL2000, the Builtin\Administrators group automatically inherits sysadmin in sql instances ont he same server, so if you are in the local administators group on server, you have sysadmin, andn would be good to go, without having to track down the sa password(which might have been defaulted to blank! remember when you could do that?)
it's possible someone removed the permission, but i doubt it, it's the defautl and most people leave that kind of stuff alone.
Lowell