Network Adapter and connection for XP Pro

k Here are the specs of my PC

Motherboard PC Chips model P236
1 gig of ddr ram
160 gb SATA drive
Router: Belkin wireless 802.11b/g 54 MBPS

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2

Here is my situation.

I one day decided to disable my ethernet on my desktop by right clicking on the network connection icon on the bottom right of my desktop and disabling it. Well plans changed and I wanted to be able to watch stuff using the internet on it so I go to look for the connection and it's nowhere to be seen to be enabled. I even went into my device manager and looked for the network adapters and couldn't find a single one. So i'm thinking that for some reason my device drivers had been removed for some reason (not by my doing). So I can't enable the Ethernet, and now it's not even recognized in my hardware so I try to add new hardware and I wasn't 100% sure on which VIA Ethernet Adapter it was so I tried each one at a time installing and uninstalling but the device wouldn't start. So I tried looking up drivers from PCChips and looking up their network adapter drivers and I tried them and they don't seem to start the device. But whenever I plug in a ethernet cable in the lights still flash on the adapter like it's recognizing it's there... So i'm weirded out by this and wondering what should my next move be. But i needed Internet so I tried using a Belkin PCMCIA Wireless card usually for laptops (but i installed a working port in my desktop) however even with the right driver for the right model installed and the right 10 letter key for my WEP connection, it only has limited or no connectivity. PLEASE HELP ME GET MY DESKTOP BACK ONLINE