Use the "lspci -v" command to determine the chipset that the card uses. Then look in the HCL list here and google for the model name and chipset on
www.google.com/linux/. You need to find out which driver you need to use. Some cards use different chipsets for different models of cards. Sometimes a different chipset is used for different revisions of the same model.
Also look in the SMC website and see if they have a linux driver download, or instructions.
Also install wireless-tools and wpa_supplicant. If you have something like kernel-syms or kernel-symbols you can install for your current kernel, install that also. This might allow you to install the wireless driver (kernel module) without having to make a new kernel.
About getting wireless working in Windows, you may have a problem where the cards driver handles the wireless authentication and so the windows tools don't see any wireless networks. Do you have an SMC desktop applet on your toolbar? First connect to the router using your NIC and get the wpa-psk key in the web interface. Copy the key and save it in a text file so that you can access it later. If there is a desktop applet, you can paste the key to the dialog box that requests it. I had the same situation on my laptop. I needed to enter the key in the broadcom applet instead.