i'm thinking you may have to step it up from AE 6 or 6.5 - I you may have to transfer through a bunch of version from that point also. But AE 6.5 was the last one before the unified interface so maybe that is a good place to start.
tt
From: simhoff@aol.com
To: "After Effects Mail List" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 3:40:46 PM
Subject: [AE] opening old AE file
I've been asked to make some changes on an animation done in MacAE version 3 in 1997! Yikes!!!
Anyone know what the last version of After Effects was that would open an old file like that and would the file open at all on an Intel Mac?
thanks,
Sandy