I just installed a Western Digital Raptor and a Promise SATA150 TX4 controller. It seems that Knoppix can't handle this card yet.

lspci -v reveals:

00:09.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown devic
e 3318 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown device 3318
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 96, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 1080 [size=64]
I/O ports at 10e0 [size=16]
I/O ports at 1000 [size=128]
Memory at e8004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Memory at e8020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=16K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

I'm running on a Tyan Tiger MPX-4M (dual-Athlon 2Ghz), so I get to use a 66MHz PCI bus and more than 16 IRQs.

-SUO