I installed RHEL3.9 x86_64 on a Bensley/ClovertownG0 SDV. It has a dual port onboard "80003ES2LAN" Intel network card. I did an NFS install and this worked fine. Then I went to install the i386 flavor of RHEL3.9 and the LOM was not visible; it asked me to "select driver" but wasn't happy when I picked e1000 manually. I tried adding in an older 82541PI Intel NIC. Kudzu on the 3.9-x86_64 install saw this fine, but the i386 install still didn't see it. Then I booted the older RHEL3.8 i386 install disc, and this was able to see both network devices, and install over NFS on either. Maybe I can do a CD install and then see whether the drivers are loaded automatically or not when the kernel comes up for real. If not, I assume manually loading them would work. I expect there's no way to fix this for customers, except perhaps by providing a driver update disk, since there are no more updates coming. So the best workaround should probably be determined and release noted.
Unfortunately at this point, it probably doesn't matter anymore given the amount of time that has passed. I'm going to close as WONTFIX for now on the basis of the age of the bug and product. If there's still a need to make a release note, feel free to reopen and we'll take it from there. But yes, this can probably be fixed with a driver update disk.