Dave's right. Here's a good practice tip:

@@ROWCOUNT changes with each new SET or SELECT, so if you want to hold on to the value for a while, be sure to store it in the variable of your choice.

-- always returns a @@ROWCOUNT of 1, because of the SET statement

declare @DoNothing int

select name from sys.databases

SET @DoNothing = 1

select @@ROWCOUNT as rowsReturned

go

-- saves the rowcount in @rc for later reference

declare @rc int

declare @DoNothing int

select name from sys.databases

SET @rc = @@ROWCOUNT -- save for later

set @DoNothing = 1

select @rc as rowsReturned