[rudedog]

The problem lies in the way win2k or xp hands out resources. In this case IRQs

I would not place your NIC next to the AGP slot. Because doing so 99% of the time your nic will be assinged the same IRQ (11) as your Video Card.

A way around this is to enable or disable PNP within your motherboards bois.
Be very careful with this. You can screw things up when playing with your bios.

Most of the time all you need to do is swap some card around and you will be able to free up resources.

Personally experience, never put the nic in the slot next to the AGP. If I can I will look for some technical info on these 2 slots sharing.