Hi Maggot,
The EOS series has a motor drive fitted into the body (unlike my own camera, that D40x) so it will be able to autofocus your old lenses. However, depending on how old your lenses are, it might not be able to take automatic light metering. It just depends. Also, the sensor on a digital SLR is about 1 and a half times smaller than 35mm film, which means that your lens focal lengths will be multiplied by 1.5 (e.g. if you have a 17-70mm lens, it will act more like an approximately 28-105mm lens) - this is not especially handy for wide-angle and you may also get some vignetting on the edges of your shots.
To get around this you can buy a digital 'full frame' camera, which has a sensor size that is pretty much the same as 35mm film. This will eliminate any cropping issues. However, full frame digital cameras are still rather expensive (in the £000's).
My advice would be to get thee down to the local camera shop with your old lenses and ask the assistant if he'll let you fit them on to a shop Canon EOS body just to see if they work OK.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Mel.