from sql server 2005 onwards there is no support for non ANSI outer join operator *= and =*, default compatibility level for
database created in different versions of sql server are as follows
sql server 6.0 60
sql server 7.0 70
sql server 7.5 75
sql server 2000 80
sql server 2005 90
sql server 2008 100
when you change compatibility level of databse created in 2005 and 2008 to 80 or lower then you can use non ANSI outer join
operator and for this use procedure sp_dbcmptlevel<database name><level>