I'm using the live cd (64bit) and ndiswrapper is a default package.
I was able to install the appropriate windows driver for my card
(an Atheros AR5007EG) The suse hardware info and network manager sees the card as AR24X but it is a AR5007EG per HP Pavilion dv6707us.
Doing ndiswrapper -l shows the driver is installed but when I unplug my ethernet the network settings -YaST doesn't find a connection and also lists the card as unconfigured.
Is there a reliable way to enable this card and get it working with 64 bit Suse?

I don't have any experience with 64bit systems but is the Windows driver 64bit?

You will need to unload the default ath5k module before using the ndiswrapper module.

Thanks for the response I did unload the ath5k module, but I get this from network settings:

AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (not connected)
BusID : 0000:03:00.0
Unable to configure the network card because the kernel device (eth0, wlan0) is not present. This is mostly caused by missing firmware (for wlan devices). See dmesg output for details.

And the ndiswrapper related output of dmesg is as follows:

ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
ndiswrapper (link_pe_images:576): fixing KI_USER_SHARED_DATA address in the driver
ndiswrapper: driver net5211 (,06/21/2007,5.3.0.56) loaded
PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [LK4E] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ndiswrapper (ZwClose:2227): closing handle 0x0 not implemented
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:191): log: C0001389, count: 4, return_address: ffffffff8858636e
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:194): code: 0x5d02e000
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:194): code: 0x28
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:194): code: 0x35d000
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:194): code: 0x35d000
ndiswrapper (mp_init:216): couldn't initialize device: C000009A
ndiswrapper (pnp_start_device:439): Windows driver couldn't initialize the device (C0000001)
ndiswrapper (mp_halt:259): device ffff810040cd9700 is not initialized - not halting
ndiswrapper: device eth%d removed
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:00.0 disabled
ndiswrapper: probe of 0000:03:00.0 failed with error -22
usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
eth0: no link during initialization.
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
eth0: no link during initialization.
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
eth0: link up.
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
eth0: no IPv6 routers present

I am loading the 64 bit windows driver with ndiswrapper. I can get it working on 64 bit ubuntu 7.10 but so many other things are not working with ubuntu on this laptop (resume from suspend, cpu fan speed, power management) that I wanted to try open suse. I'd like to get it to be able to use linux but if not I'll sell it since I'm not very interested in running windows.