This is a nit, but important for anyone with a really ancient laptop that might find this thread in a search.
PCMCIA usually (not always) refers to a now obsolete 16 bit standard. Modern cards with the same form factor are 32 bit “Cardbus” devices. PCMCIA was such an akward acronym that it became “PC card” prior to emergence of 32bit cardbus as “the” standard. So “PC card” might refer to either.
Not a problem for new equiptment, but a killer for someone trying to make do with legacy equiptment. It’s even confusing for manufacturers: I’m holding a D-link DWL-650 wireless adapter card. The back of the box says it is a “high performance 16-bit PC card” Yet D-link’s support site will tell you that they do not make (aand never have) any 16 bit devices, and that this is in fact a 32 bit cardbus device.
So if you have areally old laptop you want to use for wireless, you have to find an obsolete 16 bit PCMCIA 803.11b adapter on the used market…there are none currently produced, and such a laptop won’t have USB, and there is no good way to add USB, as all the current PC-card to USB adapters are cardbus as well. If the computer’s documentation says “cardbus” it is supposed to work with current hardware. If it doesn’t say “cardbus” it will not work with any current hardware.