Airport Extreme, Linksys Router WRT54G: Internet is Impossibly Slow

I have a problem regarding wireless internet activity on my Powerbook G4. In my house, I have a Linksys Router (WRT54G) that has worked fine for other laptops (including an iBook running Airport Extreme, a Powerbook G4 running Airport, and an iMac running Airport) for many years. When I got a refurbished Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz with Airport Extreme, I found that while Airport could be configured to recognize the wireless network (with a WEP 40/128-bit encrypted key), it barely works on the computer. The signal strength is strong (the laptop is hooked up right above the Linksys router), but the Internet barely works at all. Surfing to webpages takes 10-20-30 sec to work, and often the connection seems to drop off all together. Something is clearly wrong because despite the fact that this is my fastest computer with the fastest wireless capability, it runs at a slower pace than any computer I have ever used on the web.
I was wondering if anyone has had similar problems with getting Wireless Extreme on Powerbook G4s to work with this particular (and older) model of Linksys wireless browser (WRT54G). Some Internet sleuthing led me to believe that perhaps the router firmware needs to be updated or something like that, but I haven't really found any definitive answers. If there is anything wrong on the laptop-OS-side, I have no idea. I would appreciate any pointers that you can provide!
Thank you to all,
Matthew
Computer:
Powerbook G4
1.67 GHz
1 GB DDR SDRAM
OS 10.4.8
Wireless Router:
Linksys
Model: WRT54G
Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   1.67GHz, 1GB DDR SDRAM

Hi all,
Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, my problems persist.
I was able to reset my router and to configure it again on the web-based router configuration.
As per your suggestion, I tried switching the Wireless Network Mode to "G-only." Not only did this kick off my older computers on the network (an old iMac and an older Powerbook G4, both with normal airport), but it did not fix the speed problems on the new Powerbook G4/with Airport Extreme. I am back on the mixed setting now in order to get most of the computers on the network back to their old working states...
I also tried disabling my WEP encrypted key but found that this did not speed anything up at all.
I have upgraded my firmware from its previous version, v 1.41.2 (very old!), to the latest from the Linksys website: v 4.30.5. This has not helped at all either.
Is it possible that there is any setting on the Powerbook/Airport Extreme itself that is causing these problems?
Thank you all again for your help,
Matthew
Powerbook G4 Titanium   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   1gHz, 512mb RAM

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