I must have just been unlucky with the Linksys NC100 v2 that I tried last year. It would randomly "die", and would require a reboot before it'd resume functioning. Happened under both Linux and Windows 98, so it almost certainly wasn't a driver issue. Probably not a load issue, either, as I don't exactly have heavy traffic on my home network. I bought a Sohoware SFA110A to replace it, and have had no problems with that card.
I also have a Linksys LNE100TX v4.1 in a different machine, and that card has also worked fine so far.