cpu needed to NAT 45mbs

[Carl Karsten <carl () personnelware com>]

I do the networking in my house, and hang out with guys that do networking in 
small offices that have a few T1s.   Now I am talking to people about a DS3 
connection for 500 laptops*, and I am bing told "a p4 linux box with 2 nics 
doing NAT will not be able to handle the load."   I am not really qualified to 
say one way or the other.  I bet someone here is.

* for wifi, going to be using this system:
http://wavonline.com/vendorpages/extricom.htm
March 13-17 (testing a week or 2 before) for PyCon in Chicago.
If anyone wants to see it in action, etc.  drop me a line.

Carl K