The development of agricultural socialized services is an inevitable choice for the realization of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. How to improve the agricultural socialized service system to serve and drive small farmers has become an important and realistic topic at present. Especially in the digital age, it is of great concern whether the digital economy can fully empower the agricultural socialized service system and promote the integration of small farmers into modern agricultural development. Based on the spatial perspective of county-level urban-rural integration, this paper discusses the impact of the digital economy on agricultural socialized services, and further examines the actual impact of modern agricultural development on whether small farmers can benefit. Empirical testing is conducted using macro data from counties in China from 2010 to 2020 and micro data from third-party evaluations after poverty alleviation in Sichuan Province in 2022. The results show that: First, using a panel multidimensional fixed-effects model to test, it is found that the digital economy effectively promotes agricultural socialized services. The digital economy can use data elements in phases to improve the overall efficiency of factor allocation, and indirectly enhance agricultural socialized services through the multiplier effect. Second, the economic effect of digital empowerment exhibits significant regional characteristics, with the central region having a negative effect, and other regions having a significant positive effect. Third, although agricultural socialized services can better lead the development of small farmers and agricultural modernization through optimizing the industrial structure and expanding the income growth path, it is also found that the Internet applications that small farmers are most frequently exposed to significantly limit their industrial development benefits. The existence of the “digital literacy divide” among farmers may weaken the effectiveness of the digital economy in assisting agricultural socialized services. Therefore, in the context of accelerating the development of the county-level digital economy, decision-makers should adhere to the coordinated development of “digital” and “socialized” services, improve the degree of supply and demand matching, and thus enable small farmers to quickly integrate into the big industry and connect with the big market. Specifically, first, fully utilize the digital economy to solve the structural imbalance between supply and demand of agricultural socialized services; second, build a data element market and break down regional barriers and local protection; third, enhance the dominant position of small farmers, promote the integration of rural industries, and stabilize their expectations.