ArduinoISP issue

Hi there,
I'm not 100% sure this is the best place to post so if moderators think it should be elsewhere please move it. Anyway, I have an issue using ArduinoISP. I have an old duemilanove and I cut the DTR trace to stop auto reset. I then try to run avrdude and I get the following error:

C:\Users\****\Desktop\arduino-0022\hardware\tools\avr\bin>avrdude -b 19200 -c
avrisp -P com3 -p t45 -t -v -C ../etc/avrdude.conf

avrdude: Version 5.4-arduino, compiled on Oct 11 2007 at 19:12:32
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/

         System wide configuration file is "../etc/avrdude.conf"

         Using Port            : com3
         Using Programmer      : avrisp
         Overriding Baud Rate  : 19200
         AVR Part              : ATtiny45
         Chip Erase delay      : 4500 us
         PAGEL                 : P00
         BS2                   : P00
         RESET disposition     : possible i/o
         RETRY pulse           : SCK
         serial program mode   : yes
         parallel program mode : yes
         Timeout               : 200
         StabDelay             : 100
         CmdexeDelay           : 25
         SyncLoops             : 32
         ByteDelay             : 0
         PollIndex             : 3
         PollValue             : 0x53
         Memory Detail         :

                                  Block Poll               Page
      Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  Max
W   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ---
-- ---------
           eeprom        65     6     4    0 no        256    4      0  4000  45
00 0xff 0xff
           flash         65     6    32    0 yes      4096   64     64  4500  45
00 0xff 0xff
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0
 0 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  90
00 0x00 0x00
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  90
00 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  90
00 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  90
00 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          2    0      0     0
 0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : STK500
         Description     : Atmel AVR ISP
         Hardware Version: 2
         Firmware Version: 1.18
         Topcard         : Unknown
         Vtarget         : 0.0 V
         Varef           : 0.0 V
         Oscillator      : Off
         SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): programmer not in sync, resp=0x15
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes!  Invalid device signature.
avrdude: Expected signature for ATtiny45 is 1E 92 06

I've tried with the recent avrdude 5.11 binary, the winavr binary and the arduino binary but none of them seem to work. Its not the fact its resetting since I continuity tested with my multimeter and it is definitely cut. I really have no idea what is going on and I've asked in IRC channels and they can't seem to help either. I've seen a few other people with this issue but nobody seems to have posted a fix. Thanks.

Connect an LED to pin 9. Does the LED gradually fade on then off then on?

Yep, the heartbeat functions correctly.

How did you determine that COM3 is the correct choice?