Just a few final points: Knoppix wireless support has been bad for a long time and got worse in versions 5.x. Don't base your opnion of Linux on Knoppix wireless support. If you must try a Live CD before installing, look at Puppy Linux, Mandriva, Backtrack 2 and others for better Live CD support of wireless devices than Knoppix, or do a temporary install of Debian or Ubuntu and see if they give you the support that you need.

I wasn't suggesting buying an entire new notebook. But if you think USB networking is acceptable, then shopping around for a wifi usb nic is an option if the one that you have happens to be based on a chip set that will not release it's specs. If your Compaq has a normal PCMCIA slot on it then I would go with a non-usb solution. But if you instead have the damn, faster but nobody makes anything for it, slot that HP is trying to replace PCMCIA slots with then you're up a creek there.