Ok some very strange things.

Mint doesn't like the Nividia drivers and causes the system to freeze in the middle of log in.

Went back to XP, it flies super fast, only one problem. Ethernet isn't detected, and I can't find the maker of the Ethernet card.

I'm thinking I should just throw in one of my spare pci ethernet cards and install the driver that way. Sounds stupid but hey I am stupid sometimes.

Edit...

Well it looks like this 3com card I have does not have basic drivers within xp... :/ I need to find the hp disc that came with it.