On my budget of ~$100, I have been planning on a Linksys 54GL and still have money for about 2 USB wireless adapters. I have selected this router months ahead due to its reputation while using Tomato, DD-WRt, etc. However, I didn't realize that there are a couple of N wireless routers now priced low enough that I could afford one with maybe enough $$ for one wireless adapter (I need at least one for a tower with no wireless).

My question is this: Since you can tweak the router to do so much more (and turn the power up, I believe) with the 3rd party firmware, is it still maybe a solid choice overall with only a small difference in speed (G vs N) than an N router? So many people still seem to choose the G routers and flash them over the N routers, so there must be more to that reasoning than just money...

I think it has been mostly the money up until now, as well as the lack of other N hardware until fairly recently. Also, many people don't think ahead and plan for expansion (guilty as charged). I believe some of the newer N routers also work with 3rd party firmware, you just have to be more careful as there hasn't been as much testing.

I've got a couple old Linksys WRT54G (ver 1.1 - long before the GL series) and really like the extra capability with 3rd party stuff. Especially the ability to create a mesh network and to upload a custom firewall using fwbuilder.