Do you have any other reason for wanting Linux other than to connect to your Empeg?

If not I think you should consider switching to another MS OS (USB connectivity works well in Win2K) as Linux generally takes some fiddling to get it working, especially the USB stuff (in my experience) and if you are having trobles getting Ethernet to work under XP, then moving to Linux is probably not going to be your solution (of course you could be a unix SysAdmin and just not know XP)