Yes, similar happens to me all the time with both Windows Server 2008 and Vista with respect to 802.11 putting two interfaces on the same subnet (and LAN segment). I typically am never the wiser until I notice that a SMB connection had gone over to 802.11 first, because that associated before the wire was plugged in, causing data transfers on that connection to be much slower than on a hardline.
This is something that happens every day to a great many laptop users, I'd wager. Certainly not by any means up there in "does not work at all, period / incompatible with networking" land, as, at the very least, emperical evidence has a quite different story to say.
- S