Your best bet is to find a model converter. Free such converters (or shareware) can be found at
http://www.3dlinks.comJust export in .OBJ format from Maya (It's a generic format, you don't need any plugins) and then you open that in the converter of your choice, and convert it to .3DS.
Now, one important thing to remember is that Maya and the .OBJ file format counts polygons by squares.
::would be 1 polygon in Maya.
In 3D Studio and the .3DS file format however, that would be two polygons, since 3D Studio counts triangles.
:.would be 1 polygon in 3D Studio MAX.
May I ask which version of Maya you have purchased?
Maya Complete does the trick, and costs a whole lot less than Maya Unlimited. And which version number, 4.0 or the newest 4.5?
Cheers, KTottE