Netgear Wireless Adapter "sees" Linksys Access Point but can't connect

I started with Ethernet to hook up three computers in a small home office.
I have a laptop and another desktop in another room and didn't want to run a
long ethernet cable through the wall, so I bought a Netgear MA101 usb
wireless adapter for the desktop, a Linksys WPC54G wireless notebook adapter
for the laptop, and a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point to connect them
to the ethernet network. The laptop, running Win XP, connected to the
network flawlessly, but the desktop, running Win ME, couldn't connect.

The MA101's software for Win ME included a utility that showed a little red
or green PC screen in the taskbar to show status. Usually it would be red,
but would occasionally go green. But even when green, the utility's popup
would show connection with the access point, but no connection through it to
the other PCs on the ethernet or the laptop.

I assumed this was another of many failings of Win ME, so I picked up XP
Home and upgraded the desktop's OS. Well, now at least the PC will boot up
and shutdown in a fraction of the time, but still no joy connecting. The
taskbar utility doesn't exist for XP; instead XP loaded a different driver
from the MA101's CD. In XP's Connection Manager, the wireless network
connection icon has an X on its cable and says Wireless Connection
Unavailable. When I run ipconfig, it says media disconnected.

I'm tempted to buy a Linksys usb wireless adapter and toss the Netgear unit.

Any help would be appreciated.