I picked up a piece of software off the net which does it:
Meracl ImageMap Generator. http://www.stockholm.bonet.se/meracl/mimg.htm
Its a really awesome aid for making image maps in really easy ways.
Oh, and I stole some javascript to do the auto shading of the links as you scroll over them. Search for a class called "mapper" and you should be able to find it.
The links then all just take you to entries in my mySQL database.