Congrats on posting this. The only thing this device is missing is Draft N, right? That's a big bummer for me, since Asus is guaranteeing upgradability on the AL-500W.
I can get up to 60Mbps throughput with the Asus AL500W from a floor below the router using both Linksys and Asus hardware clients. I'm happy with the results.I haven't kept up with the latest draft N hardware, but the last roundup I read indicated that not only did draft N not offer any significant speed improvement, but it also had a tendency to interfere with non-N networks.
I'm sticking with my linksys until N is no longer a draft.