powerbook rev A 12" airport terrible!!

I recently purchased a powerbook 867mhz 12" and the airport is terrible. I mainly used it in my apartment and when i am like 6 feet away from my router the signal goes from 2-3 bars. I never get a full 4 bars. Then I went to my school today and attempted to get on their network via airport and i couldn't even see the network. I have used an iBook on both of these networks and never had problems. Are powerbooks that much worse in airport reception? Is there a way I can make the airport better? If anyone has had experience with this let me know thanks. 🙂

Edit: just realized where i posted this can a mod please move this to hardware. sorry