any kind of informed opinion, but "ago," to me, simply means something that happened in the past, while "before" implies specifically that it happened before something else - the sentence He came sometime before seems to be missing a word. He came before what? Before she came? Before we did? Before the sun rose?
Generally speaking, you can only replace 'ago' with the word 'before' in reported speech or in a text in which 'before when' is clear. Usually the tense of the verb will be past perfect:
Direct speech: I did it a few hours ago.
Reported speech: He said he had done it a few hours before.
Having gone to bed only three hours before, he didn't hear the alarm when it went off at 5 a.m.
==> Having gone to bed = (Because he) had gone to bed
==> three hours before = three hours before 5 a.m.
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