win7 detects my wireless card but won't use it...

I'm having this odd problem where win7 autodetects my wireless network card just fine (Asus WL-160N). There are no proper win7 drivers as its an old card, it seems to use the same one as I got from the asus website.

However, when I try to run ANYTHING that needs a net connection, like my antivirus install program, it tells me that it cannot detect a network card. As a matter of fact, there is no wireless networking tab under networking, and there is not even wireless zero service running. On top of that, it does not even try to detect my router (Asus RT-NI6), again, because it thinks there is no card.

I found this thread but none of the people seem to have a similar problem. As the last post was so long ago, I thought I would make a new thread - sorry if its not in the right spot or if a newer thread exists. I found all of the suggestions did nothing. I don't know much about win7, having only had it a couple weeks. With no wireless its worse than useless to me.

I have installed the software that came with the card, and it does nothing. Even tried running it in XP and Vista mode (as admin user). I have only the basic install from the dvd, with no wired connection currently available. The only internet i have is on my XP system, that is too unstable (thats why I wanted to upgrade to win7). Obviously I'm missing something, but no clue.

If you need more information, I'm more than willing to provide. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Edit: the card and the router work fine in XP, no problems. Wireless zero in XP is an issue, so I have to use the control center program from asus.

I'd just upgrade to a card that supports Windows 7 and be done with it.