Automatically the e1000e driver is loaded, dmesg shows:
e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 0.3.3.3-k2  
e1000e: Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Intel Corporation.     
e1000e 0000:00:19.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
e1000e 0000:00:19.0: setting latency timer to 64               
0000:00:19.0: 0000:00:19.0: The NVM Checksum Is Not Valid      
e1000e: probe of 0000:00:19.0 failed with error -5             

hwinfo reports:
26: PCI 19.0: 0200 Ethernet controller
  [Created at pci.310]                
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_104b
  Unique ID: kpGf.mInfNyjoCrB                    
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:19.0     
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:19.0                      
  Hardware Class: network                        
  Model: "Intel 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x104b "82566DC Gigabit Network Connection"
  SubVendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  SubDevice: pci 0x0000
  Revision: 0x03
  Memory Range: 0xfe000000-0xfe01ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xfe025000-0xfe025fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x1840-0x185f (rw)
  IRQ: 219 (no events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d0000104Bsv00008086sd00000000bc02sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: e1000e is not active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe e1000e"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

The 11.0 kernel loaded the e1000 driver which worked fine (so, this is a regression) - but this one does not work
either under 2.6.27-rc6-HEAD_20080918090155-pae:
dmesg shows:
Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 7.3.20-k3-NAPI
Copyright (c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation

but ifconfig eth0 gives an error.