Upgrading a WinXP T60 with Intel 3945ABG to Intel 4965AGN ?

First off, it's possible, right? The two cards use the same physical interface (mini pci-e) and can make use of whatever antennas are built into the chassis, correct? I just ordered a wireless gigabit router with Wifi-N, and I checked online and it looked like 4965 cards were in the $40-60US range, which I'd be willing to shell out if I knew it would work. I'm comfortable doing that kind of upgrade myself, I just don't want to drop the money or crack open the laptop if it's not going to work. Additionally, there are WinXP (Pro 32-bit) drivers for the 4965? A couple places I was looking at online, to purchase the hardware from, only specifically mentioned Vista, but I found that unlikely that there aren't official windows drivers.

A side note, what other upgrades could I make? It currently has a 1.83 GHz CD (T2400) and while I'd love to be able to throw in a 45nm chip, but I have this suspician that's not possible. Any worthwhile upgrades otherwise? It already has 2GB of RAM, and once SSD's get ~5x cheaper I'd consider springing for one.

 

Unless you have a home network that does file transfers or video streaming, there is no point to even trying this. Your internet speeds aren't going to get any faster.

 

Yes, it will not be any noticeable faster. However, rangewise will improve significantly, be it in basement or outside of the house!

 

I got a Linksys WRT350N (Gbig, 802.11n, USB host) and the last firmware allow to use 802.11n. My T61p connect at 130Mbps/s vs 54Mbps/s for my wife T60p. The files transferts are really fast. It's nearly has fast as my old 100Mbps/s Etherner cable lan (upgraded to 1Gbps/s by the way).

To upgrade T60 to 802.11n, you also need to add a third antenna but I'not sure. My T61p and T61 both have 3 antennas.

 

Yea, my laptop is not the only computer on the network, once I get it setup there will be a gaming/multimedia desktop and at least two different servers and then my roaming laptop.

 

::Bump::

Has no-one done this yet?

 

It will certainly work. Just be sure to attach the antenna, of course.

 

It will not work!

Actually it will, but be sure to get the IBM/Lenovo version. I bought a regular white box version and tried to put it in my T61p and the system blocked the card and wouldn't let me boot. It gave me error 1804 on boot.

Here is a thread on the issue, some people get around with bios or firmware mods, but your best bet would be buying the lenovo version to begin with and skip the hassel. You can get pulled ones from ebay.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=55837&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Also FYI the 4965N uses 3 antenna's if you only have 2 your performance may suffer.