Network Teaming Confusion

I have multiple servers with dual NIC's, I was always under the assumption
that network teaming with Compaq's network teaming driver, that is built
into their servers, doubled the throughput to and from the server, when I
set it up for load balancing.

Anyway, here is what I want, and hopefully someone can clear this up for me.
I have 4 Windows server, 3 Windows 2003 sevrers, and one Windows 2000
server, soon to be upgraded to Windows 2003. I want maximum throughput to
and from these servers. They all have dual NIC's and we are running a Cisco
3550 switch as our server backbone (Small Firm).

I was told that I had to setup Teaming and then setup the switch for
etherchannel, but that disconnected everyone from all servers...

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tony