changing page metadata (including new authorship tags), adding meaningful links to/from the page (to decent sites) and quality content improves the ranking, pages dedicated to content show up.
Finding old links should be fairly easy,
site:http://www.oldsite.com
as a Google query should return you most of them, google analytics should help return the others if you have a default 404 that logs request urls etc
_________________TwitterCharlie Brooker:
Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.