Download this patched e1000 driver:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~plalonde2/e1000.tgz

Uncompress it in a temporary folder:

tar xfz e1000.tgz

Make a backup copy of your existing ESX e1000.o vmkernel driver:

mv /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/e1000.o /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/e1000.bak

Copy the patched e1000.o into the vmkernel module directory:

cp e1000.o /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/

Set read-only permissions on the module:

chmod 444 /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/e1000.o

Add device support for this Intel NIC:

echo device,0x8086,0x10a4,nic,82571GB Quad Gigabit Ethernet Controller,e1000.o >> /etc/vmware/vmware-devices.map

Restart your server and voila! Your quad-port Intel GigE PCI-Express card should work!