One major consideration is that most systems out there are single-platform, vendor-unique.

Which leaves you entirely at the mercy of the short-lived company for driver updates etc, and unable to share files with some other devices on your network.

Also, AoE generally works only within a single LAN segment, which can make wireless access interesting..

EDIT: Something like a Linksys NSLU2 (or similar) is probably a better idea.
Cheers