New computer with Vista

Hiya Girls and Boys

I have had to buy a new computer due to a terminal illness with my old one. My old one used OS XP Home edition SP2 and used an alcatel Speed touch USBmodem to connect to internet. The new pre-installed Vista won't recognise this modem, so I thought no problem, I'll use the new BT Home hub I have. I only go on the internet to play Asheron's Call. I duly connected my BT Home hub via an ethernet cable to the new computer.
Reinstalled the game on the new PC, but this game won't update to gain access to the game. Question: Do I need port forwarding for the Homehub, or is it a problem with Vista not recognising drivers, or indeed both? I wish I could have perhaps a dual boot with XP and Vista, but the tutorials I have seen on Syschat don't go according to plan. I have a partition that comprises 6.38GB Eisa configuration, 145GB (C) NTFS Healthy (system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition) and 145GB (D) NTFS healthy primary partition). I cannot shrink D: less than half the size and the remainder ends up as a logical drive. Forgive me, I,m a bit of a nerd regarding disk partitioning. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards Headfull