installing 2 nic cards

ok this seems to be along the line of what im trying to accomplish,
i have 3 computers each has 2 nic cards. i have SDSL and 3 assined IP address with that each computer has its own ip address only problem being the SDSL modem dosent offer me any LAN type options i have to run a FTP server on each comp to move files around and i only get about 800-900K with this, no big deal with small files but i do alot of video editing and a 1-3 GB file takes a long time to move this way. now i have 2 XP machines and one win 2000 Pro, for some reason the 2000 Pro machine can handle running both cards at the same time and it knows which to use for internet and which is for the lan both cards are enabled on this machine and i can see the the XP machines ONLY if i disable the nic that is on SDSL and enable the card plugged into my hub but the XP machines cant run both cards at the same time nor can the XP machines see the 2000 machine or each other (hopefully i havent lost you yet) i want to be able to have the XP machines run the way the 2000 one does. without haveing to install 2000 on all 3 because 2000 dosent seem to like to run my games here are the machine specs if theis helps

XP #1: AMD Athalon 1.4, 512 PC133 ram realtek 100/100T, Linksys 100TX nic cards

XP #2: AMD 2600XP 512 PC3200 ram, 2 linksys 100TX nic cards

win2000 Pro: intel P3 866 512 PC133 ram, intel Pro Set 10/100T, Linksys 100TX nic cards

i have tried both my Speadstream router and my Netgear 4 port Hub for the LAN the SDSL modem is a Speedstream also

my email is jdgardner@speakeasy.net