3c574 NIC support with recent 2.6 kernels.

[cga2000]

I have an old laptop with a 3Com nic/modem combo PC card that works
fine with 2.4 kernels.

$ cardctl ident

Socket 0:
  product info: "3Com", "Megahertz 3CCFEM556", "LAN + 56k Modem", ""
  manfid: 0x0101, 0x0556
  function: 0 (multifunction)

Recent distros that I have tried to install and a few live CD's are
unable to detect the presence of an ethernet card on this laptop 
even after I load the 3c564_cs module manually.

Since I have tried at least a dozen of the above and keep running into
the same problem, my guess is that support for this model has been
dropped from pcmcia with recent 2.6 kernels. 

Is anyone aware of a workaround for this problem -- even if it means
buying a different pc card -- or does this mean that I need to purchase
a new laptop with a regular PCI NIC..?

I have googled for possible solutions to this problem for over a year
and have not found anything useful so far.

Thanks,

cga