Oh, the first release of what we now think of as the OpenACS 4.x db_*
api was in fact in ACS 3.3, 3.4, or something like that. But
definitely not in 3.0! At least up through ACS 3.2 did not have it.
I think post ACS 3.2 was when some of the new 4.x style stuff started
going in - db api, templating, maybe request processor, etc. Of
course, that was a long time ago now, and I don't really remember for
sure. :)