It USB 2.0 you need which is about the same speed as firewire. It's fairly recent (last couple of years) so check if your PC has it :) If not, USB 2.0 PCI cards can be picked up for about �15
Potatoman you are wrong: the iPod ships with Musicmatch and iMusic both of which will rip .mp3 files from CDs and allow you to dump them onto the iPod.