How to check if user accepts cookies - Newbie

Listies, Is there a way to determine if a browser accepts cookies using PHP3? From my tests I've found that when cookies are disabled, the setcookie() function simply doesn't set the cookie, without so much as an error. I don't want to run setcookie(), refresh the page, and then look for the cookie, which is the only way I've found to check. I'd like to know right away if the browser will accept a cookie so I can do something else in the code without refreshing the page. TIA -Jeff