Building my first gateway firewall with wireless support

[Aaron Siegel]

Hello

My almost ten year old pc that has been running 24/7 as a firewall gateway is 
about to die.  (Of course it is running Freebsd) I would like to build a 
embedded gateway, DNS server, with DDNS client, wireless access point, 
IPSEC , and firewall.   

I appreciate some guidance, some helpfull links, or maybe share some of your 
experiences. I hobbyist not a developer. I do not expect this to be easy. 

My dream access point would have two interfaces one protect by IPSEC vpn and 
an unsecured (just a cheap linksys device connected to the LAN).  The big 
question how much processor power will I need to support one to ten clients?  

The LAN will support a couple of desktops, and maybe a toy server (backup mail 
server).

I am looking at Soekris 48xx and if needed the vpn board.. As of now I like to 
stick with x86 platform. Any other suggestions?

Thank You
Aaron