check for the_ID()

Newbie alert!

I would like to assign a different text layout to a certain page. Within my page.php and within the loop I added the following statement:

<?php if ( the_ID == 3) { ?>
make it special
<?php } else { ?>
not special
<?php } ?>

What happens is that I see the page id being printed on my page and every page is “not special”. How can I check for the page id without it being printed on the page and why is my if statement not working?

I have tried many variations without much success. I’d appreciate some insight.

<?php get_header(); ?>
<!--page.php-->
<!--include sidebar-->
<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH."/l_sidebar.php");?>
<!--main contents-->
<div id="contentx">
<div id="content">
    <!--loop-->
    <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

	<!--post title-->
		<h2 id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
	    <p class="date"><?php the_time('F j, Y'); ?> </p>
		<div class="postspace2">
	</div>
    <!--post with more link -->
    <!--Will need special div class for page=3, which is archives-->
<?php if (the_ID()== 3) { ?>
three
 <?php } else { ?>
more
 <?php } ?>

     	<?php the_content('<p class="serif">Read the rest of this page &raquo;</p>'); ?>
                <!--if you paginate pages-->
	        <?php link_pages('<p><strong>Pages:</strong> ', '</p>', 'number'); ?>
	</div>
	<!--end of post and end of loop-->
	  <?php endwhile; endif; ?>

         <!--edit link-->
	<?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '<p>', '</p>'); ?>
</div>
</div>
<!--page.php end-->

<!--include footer-->
<?php get_footer(); ?>