I think I figured out what is going on here. According to this doc:
http://www.intel.com/design/network/applnots/ap417.pdf
ICHx Integrated LAN Controller Function Disable and Power Control for Fast Ethernet
I think what this is saying is the Lan Enable is controlled by a signal from either a Super I/O GPIO, ICHx Resume-well GPIO, or micro-controller output. The signal is sent to the LAN_RST# pin on the ICH4.
To test this theory, I disabled the Lan in the original bios and rebooted. It does the exact same thing that coreboot is currently doing???
So I guess now I need to figure out where the signal is coming from?? Can anyone shed some light on this?
Thanks - Joe