@LarsG5 I apologize, I think I misunderstood what you were originally asking about

I've been working on bringing true USB 2.0 speeds to NEC-chipset CardBus USB 2.0 cards for TiBooks under OS 9 (which I just finished!) so your post caught my eye, but now I realize you were talking about CardBus working
specifically on the 17" AlBook, which it sounds like currently it doesn't at all. Unfortunately, the only CardBus Mac I own is my 667 DVI TiBook; I have no AlBook of my own to test on. Really wish I had one now.
HOWEVER... I designed a test probe app for you to run on your 17" AlBook. This simple app will determine if the CardBus port can be reached under OS 9 on the AlBook. After you run it, a text log file will be generated;
please send me that file. Based on my CardBus work thus far, I am fairly confident that a proper CardBus solution could be developed for the AlBook, but again, I'd need a test subject first. (Care to loan me yours? Haha)
Additionally you can test out the app on your own TiBook, as it will also recognize CardBus cards themselves and document their properties, such as whether they are (in the case of a USB card) NEC-chipset or some other incompatible chipset like VIA.
Here's the repo where you can find the test probe app (called
CardBusCompat.bin) as well as the system extension I developed to unlock USB 2.0 on CardBus in OS 9:
https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-USB2-EHCI/releases#release-cbrelJust expand via Stuffit and launch. Let me know if you have any trouble.