G'day Steve,
I have an old IBM Thinkpad T30 with the same situation, USB 1.0 on the back.
I have successfully used a PCMIA card to provide USB 2.0 functionality, although I seem to remember having to get the latest drivers to get it working well. No problems since then.
One way of checking latest drivers etc. is to use Driver Detective from
http://wwwdriverdetective.com/
Give it a try, nothing to lose?
Cheers
Chris