what happened to query_posts offset?

Just upgraded from 2.0.7 to the latest version of WP and I’m getting all sorts of problems with my query posts. Firstly, Matt’s Custom Query String doesn’t work and is now unsupported. And second, the offset parameter seems not to be working anymore.

<?php query_posts('offset=1&showposts=3'); ?>

used to give me the last 3 posts excluding the most recent, now I get 3 posts but the second to last is displayed twice.

Then

<?php query_posts('showposts=3'); ?>

gets me 3 entries, the most recent and the second to last twice instead of the last 3.

So my two questions are

1. What happened to query posts and offset?
2. How do I get the same results that I used to get?

Thanks in advance for any help!