IDispatch/activex objects in 2011

[Jason King]

I need to interface with an application that has an IDispatch 
(activex/ole/automation) interface.  I can find some threads from 2006 
about how painful that was.  I'm suspecting that in the intervening 5 
years progress has been made, but I'm having trouble finding it.  The 
manual says D interfaces are descended from IUnknown, which would help 
me to CREATE an IDispatch object, but how do I use one that already exists?