This following works for me (gnuplot 4.4)
plot "./file.dat" u 1:2:3 with lines palette
Hope this helps.
When I ran your code gnuplot couldn’t pass the “rgb” part.
For an example of using the variable tag see the similar question:
GNUPLOT: dot plot with data depending dot size
with the useful examples found here:
http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/pointsize.html
All the best
Tom