Also worth noting that the article has since been updated to clarify that it's only the 97-2003 format which has been dropped. Export to 2003-2007 .doc .xls and .ppt formats are still supported. Plus from the way it's phrased it seems like import from 97-2003 formats will still be supported, you just can't export them that way.
It was via a clarification from Google PR. The article as originally submitted was correctly reporting, as the message from Google indicated a dropping of all .doc, .xls, and .ppt format export support.
