Linux wireless from xp

Can somebody please advise me, I'm thinking of buying an acer netbook with linux lire installed, my current main pc is xp, is it simple to set up a router to keep both these systems happy and in harmony, is it even possible, i don't wat to spend the money if it not going to work, my current system is supplied via cable and ethernet, I notice the netbook has an ethernet port, does this mean if i plugged it into the acer that it would automatically work? many thanks

Routers and other Ethernet devices don't really care what OS is running on the host system. On the networking level, all OSes communicate the same way. You should have no issues connecting via Ethernet using a Linux netbook.

thank you techiemoe