VMWare emulates your real network card with a virtual one, so the drivers you install aren't the drivers for the real card, but rather the emulated one.
If you run VMWare on top of windows (and I assume under Linux too), you'll need to install the network drivers for an 'AMD PCnet adapter', which is recognized by default by many operating systems.
If you run VMWare on top of windows (and I assume under Linux too), you'll need to install the network drivers for an 'AMD PCnet adapter', which is recognized by default by many operating systems.