Need help PLEASE - Network Cards

I'm looking to turn an old XP or vista computer my neighbor is going to give me into a router, as mine is slowly dying :(

 

I know PfSense works best with intel based NIC's so anyone have suggestions?

 

Due to the fact I don't have it right now, I obviously dont know stats.

That being said I do know it works perfectly.

 

But I dont know a few things. One would be the best NIC to get.

I have a pretty decent sized house and my parents basicly stay as far as they can from the router, so I need something with a decent area.

 

I've never really been forced to look into NIC's so I dont know much about them

 

Lastly, how does cacheing work on PfSense because I remember Logan mentioned it in a video a while ago. Thanks guys!