Best I can do is point you here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs and the wireless cards supported link at the bottom.
Maybe try your livecd again and check dmesg after modprobe -r rt61 and modprobe rt61 see if any errors can point us in a new direction?
Edit: Yet another link this time solving the problem!! http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/.../t-132980.html , the rt61 module is included as I mentioned but firmware required. See the (b) rt61 in Dapper section.

Ok. Well I didn't want to deal with the rt61 module given the posts that I've read of people struggling with it.

So I bought a new one from Belkin. It was the only actual purchase site linked on the Ubuntu help page on supported wireless cards, so I figured I wouldn't be likely to buy a card with a chipset I wasn't expecting. (I wish venders would document this stuff better. I don't think I've ever seen on a website a spec that specifies the chipset.)

Anyway, I plugged the new one in and it worked immediately. No fiddling necessary. Whew! Finally.

Hope this helps someone else.

~djZanni