Okay... I've been around SQL Server for 7 years and had to figure out that "BOL" stood for Books on Line (sad, but true). Apparently the time to look things up and the time to type things out are what have brought us together.
I checked "BOL" and after much, MUCH looking I found that "fastfirstrow", a synonym for "OPTION (FAST 1)" is being deprecated in future versions of SQL Server. So, although I never found any documentation comparing the 2 statements TOP and TABLE HINT (fastfirstrow), I now know to avoid the hint for the future.
> Did you try BOL?
Did you know the answer?