For as long as I have been in IT, MS qualifications have been considered a joke, in part because they weren't overly difficult and also because it was easy to cheat with hundreds of sites offering exam questions.

Microsoft (at last) appears to have responded to this and released an Architect qualification

http://www.microsoft.com/architecture/default.aspx?pid=share.certification&abver=E9A00024-3DC1-4B6A-BC20-22716E4D2FEA

Prerequisites appear suitably onerous, with a potential candidate requiring 10 years as a practicing architect.

Intially the program is offered in two flavours, Infrastructure and Solution Architects, with Enterprise Architects (level above aformentioned qualifications) and others to follow.

The link belows describes what makes a good IT architect according to MS.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/jun05/06-06MSLearning.mspx