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Agentquery.com cross-referenced with Preditors & Editors cross-referenced with here. Part of being a professional writer is research.

Form letters have nothing to do with whether an agency is legit or good. It's necessary because they deal with too many submissions and queries to handle each with a customized individual response.

I would guess that form letters are a requirement for the vast majority of legitimate (great, good, average) agents.

Once you find the name of a couple of good agents on AgentQuery.com, then start googling the same names (for the agent or agency as a whole), you'll be shocked how much you can find out about them before you even write the first letter. (I also used WritersMarket.com, which is pretty useless, IMHO. Their listings are by agency only, with little in the way of specifics about the agents themselves. They need to totally revamp their way of doing things on that site.)

Publishers Marketplace is an invaluable resource. A "good" or "advisable" agent is one who sells books like yours. By just going back a couple years and keeping abreast of who sells what you can learn more than any blind internet search. Look on deals THEN go online and check the agents out. You should use more than one source as deadly suggests and yes: Research is necessary. If you think this part is complex just wait until you work with editors, marketing and publicists...