UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi!

I'm recompiling a kernel (Linux 2.4.18) for my laptop just to take away all unnecessary stuff and add some other various things
I would consider myself a beginner slowly becoming an intermediate, thus my knowledge in the linux kernel and hardware aren't that great.

My question is basically .. what can I uncheck/check before I compile my kernel...

PCMCIA .. (I'll need this? I believe it's a PCMCIA-slot on the side of my laptop)
Parallell support ... (I know I wont use any printers or the like so it's safe to turn this of right ?)
Plug&Play ... (I wont use any ISA-cards.. safe to uncheck?)
MultiDevice support ... (RAID etc.. pretty sure I wont need this?)
Telephony support.. (ehm no?)
SCSI-support ... (because my comp is using PCI right ?)
OLD CDROM drivers ... (am I using IDE? When I boot it says ...ATAPI CDROM: NEC CDROM drive etc...)
*phew*

And a few more questions:

I'm planning on buying a PCMCIA NIC..
Do PCMCIA NICs use the drivers in
Network device sup. --> Ethernet (10/100 MBit) --> ?
Anything else you'd like to add ? Suggestions tips, anything would be highly appreciated!

---------------
Info:
Linux 2.4.18 (Crux distribution)
Model: Compaq presario 1200 12XL202
CPU: Intel Celeron (Coppermine) 566 MHz
Mem: ~56 (?) MB
Graphics: Trident Cyberblade i1 AGP(77) (2 MB)
Hard drive: 5GB
- ReiserFS on / and /home
- DevFS on /dev

Some of the sections I go to and remove some options are:

Networking (I revome some compiled drivers that I don't have such as 3com cards.)

Multimedia (i remove sound and some other supported video cards)

ISDN (i use adsl so ISDN is useless to me)

I also remove all the modem support cause i just use my dsl connection.