@JimmyL,
i think you're right. I just wanted to see if my results were typical of what is going on out there. I'm sure it would a bit faster if I camped out in the same room as the router, but that's not practical. I didn't know if it was more of a USB wifi device performance issue, or a distance through the walls. Either way, it is still relatively fast.
i did see the cox tech laptop run at 900+ hard wired, and the same laptop run about 600+ wifi (same room), so that definitely shows a huge difference between the two on the same equipment