cyberdome, try to forget everything windows.
Code:
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection [8086:10d3]
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:0000]
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
The PCI ID of my card is 8086:10d3. If I look up 8086:10d3 in HCL database I will learn the driver is e1000e and it has been in kernel since 2.6.28.
Now, if you check your NIC's PCI ID against HCL you may find out your kernel is too old to support it (for instance).