According to pricegrabber.com, the price is competitive. It has a connector for an external antenna so thats a good thing.
FYI, the Buffalo Tech router I recommended is rebated down to $48 on buy.com. That's a solid price on a solid router.
No ports are blocked on the static plans. Port 80 is still blocked on the dynamic plan. In fact, for that reason, there's no reason to ever purchase the dynamic business plan unless you want the business desk tools, separate billing and dial-up access.
currently, the only support firmware versions are those that ship with the hardware, and those that are located at http://www2.verizon.net/micro/dlink/Default.asp?
See http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;829469 for the official KB article.
See http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;829473 for the WinXP SP2 specific instructions.
See http://support.microsoft.com/pchalofaq for the remaining FAQS.
There are multiple threads here and at dslreports.com that discuss this topic. The bottom line is that you are not required to purchase the Verizon wireless router just to have a wireless network. Most people are getting the free wired router (DI-604), then connecting any previous wireless access points or bridges to it.
It would have been a hell of a lot easier using Virtual PC 2004 or VMWare. The problem with his implementation is that he can only run one at a time. With a VM syle product he could run several of the OSes at the same time.
Multi boot is SOOOO yesterday.
The simplest couple of things to try, if you haven't done so already, is to run the latest version of DirectX and the Nvidia drivers. Get DirectX 9.0c at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0A9B6820-BFBB-4799-9908-D418CDEAC197&displaylang=en and go get the video drivers at http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html