Row numbering unpredictable

SQL Apprentice Question
need to create a stored procedure that returns the row number (for
paging) AFTER the data has been sorted with an order by. The source is
a view. The code I have is:

SELECT rownum = IDENTITY(1,1,bigint), *
INTO #tmp
FROM viewName
ORDER BY CustomerName -- field name I'm ordering by

When I recieve the results back, the rownum column is not the same
order as the customername (it jumps half way to a high number?!?),
which means I can't page it based on rownum without jumping all over
the dataset.

Anyone got any ideas on how to solve that other than client side paging
(in ADO :-P)
This is SQL 2000 SP3 (pah!)

Celko Answers
The basic principle of a tiered architecture is that display is done in
the front end adn NEVER in the database. Why are you seeking violating
40 years of Software Engineering?