I wanted to post the solution in case anyone else runs into this. I was
starting to think it was because I was running 64 bit Ubuntu and maybe there
was a driver problem with my NIC. Instead I found the answer here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1272161

Edit nsswitch.conf and change hosts setting to "files mdns4
[NOTFOUND=return] dns"

After a reboot, web on the ubuntu side performed up to expectations.

Regards,
-j