WMP54G with RT2500 chipset

I've tried several kernels (both distro and vanilla) and every driver that I
could find with several versions of ndiswrapper and I've tried all the linux
drivers that I could find for a Linksys WMP54G with the RT2500 chipset. I get
associated with the AP but any application that I've tried using (ssh, sftp,
browsers, etc) causes the computer to lock up with a kernel panic. Here's
some of the info about the problem (this is from the first attempt but I
didn't want to offer anymore unless requested):

Linux version 2.6.12-12mdkcustom (root@localhost) (gcc version 4.0.1
(4.0.1-5mdk for Mandriva Linux release 2006.0)) #2 Fri May 5 21:12:43 MDT
2006

<snip>

ndiswrapper version 1.15 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
ndiswrapper: driver rt2500 (Ralink Technology, Inc.,04/21/2005, 3.00.03.0000)
loaded
ndiswrapper: using irq 153
wlan0: vendor: 'IEEE 802.11g Wireless Card.'
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:14:bf:7b:0e:52 using serialized driver
rt2500, 1814:0201.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP
with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

Linux localhost 2.6.12-12mdkcustom #2 Fri May 5 21:12:43 MDT 2006 i686 AMD
Athlon(tm) Processor unknown GNU/Linux