setup is a cinche. Once you plug the modem in, and put the NIC in . . and hook em all together, windows (or whatever you are running . . ) will find it and automatically use it. I know Linux is pretty much the same (after I setup my dual boot: lesse if I can get internet . . lets open the browser and poke around in the . . ooo, its already working!).
So, you, if you are leaving a 56k, you will wet yourself everytime you realize you don't need to dial up and are getting ridiculously huge speeds (relative to 56k).
enjoy.