I wonder how much the neighborhood computer guy would charge to open it up and put a wifi card inside & set it up for you?
Or set up the netgear usb ??
Or does he sell laptops and would make a trade/ deal with you for desktop *w/secure wiped hard drive..
Or does he sell routers & a cable that will reach from the modem to the old computer. *but then you'd have the cable on the floor or along the walls.

We actually had a computer cable running thru the hallway and dining room for many months before we got into the wifi stuff. LOL
Son had set up a old computer as a server and had a multiport network connected, so we all had cables running into the basement to that thing..

But yep a laptop or netbook should have wifi all included and ready to use.