Yes, IDE between laptop drives and desktop drives is the same. The problem was in the amount of bits set aside to address a drive. At 128gb, the address limit is hit. Maxtor helped to fix this by making the address bit width wider in Ultra 133 controllers and drives.

I thought I heard something about linux possibly able to workaround this limitation if the controller dosen't do it on it's own, but I may be mistaken. If so, the empeg may be able to break that limit.