Thanks for replying. Sorry about that link, now I see ExpressCard vs Cardbus seems the laptop I was looking at is Cardbus.
How about this card -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815158006
for the first machine?
I don't know why but I have an impression that Compaqs are very hard to maintain and tend to be unstable. Is that an old impression not true since HP took over (or never true)?