Trying to count total users with query seperate of forum

[BamaStangGuy]

On my main page I want to show the total registered users and I am using this:

PHP Code:

<?
$dbhost = 'localhost';


$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ('Error connecting to mysql');

$dbname = 'mustangevolution';
mysql_select_db($dbname);

$res = mysql_query('SELECT COUNT(*) as total FROM user');
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res);
$total = $res['total'];

echo '<b>' .$total. '</b>';
?>

What am I missing?