After much reading, re-reading and then realising I had missed the odd small (but very important) detail here and there, finally got my rig working.
Running the following:
Rev 2.0 board
Intel 4.6 Ghz chip
2 x 1Gb Corsair DDR-2 PC640 RAM
nVidia 8600GT
Belkin F5D5000ea (Realtek 8139 chipset)
Had took a while to latch onto the Rev 2.0, ethernet not compatible bit, then tried a D-Link 530TX NIC, which also failed - crappy VIA/Rhine Chipset. Once the Belkin was popped in, hey presto!
Next step is to pop Win7 on the second partition, then my life is complete!
One final question - can I simply buy a retail DVD of Snow Leopard and upgrade. Or would it be better to follow this process for SL??
Thanks again guys - top top work!!!