One thing that makes a difference, is the digital backs are typically full 16 bit, which makes a big difference in color fidelity and detail.
I shot some stuff years ago w/ the now ancient P20. It had no more pixels than my Canon of the time when cropped to a similar aspect ratio, but the image quality was much better.
Still, the DSLRs have come a long way in a few years, especially in terms of reducing noise at high ISO equilivent settings.