I have this bug with 2.6.27-10-generic ( 2.6.27-10.20) using Ubuntu intrepid on 32 bit arch.

lgb@vega:~$ uname -a
Linux vega 2.6.27-10-generic #1 SMP Fri Nov 21 12:00:22 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455435] swapper: page allocation failure. order:0, mode:0x4020
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455449] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Tainted: P          2.6.27-10-generic #1
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455455]  [<c037c9f6>] ? printk+0x1d/0x1f
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455470]  [<c018a447>] __alloc_pages_internal+0x387/0x490
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455479]  [<c01aafc5>] alloc_slab_page+0x35/0x40
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455486]  [<c01ab6da>] new_slab+0x5a/0x1e0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455491]  [<c01ac86d>] ? unfreeze_slab+0x7d/0xc0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455496]  [<c01acae5>] __slab_alloc+0x1b5/0x260
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455501]  [<c01ad821>] __kmalloc_track_caller+0xd1/0x100
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455506]  [<c02ec071>] ? dev_alloc_skb+0x21/0x40
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455514]  [<c02ec071>] ? dev_alloc_skb+0x21/0x40
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455523]  [<c02ebdb2>] __alloc_skb+0x52/0x110
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455527]  [<c02ec071>] dev_alloc_skb+0x21/0x40
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455554]  [<f8938791>] rtl8139_rx+0xe1/0x2f0 [8139too]
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455566]  [<c014b22b>] ? hrtimer_get_next_event+0x10b/0x130
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455577]  [<f89390d6>] rtl8139_poll+0x46/0xc8 [8139too]
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455587]  [<f8938f84>] ? rtl8139_interrupt+0xb4/0x190 [8139too]
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455596]  [<c02f4e15>] net_rx_action+0xf5/0x230
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455602]  [<c0137672>] __do_softirq+0x92/0x120
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455607]  [<c013775d>] do_softirq+0x5d/0x60
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455611]  [<c01378d5>] irq_exit+0x55/0x90
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455615]  [<c0106c1a>] do_IRQ+0x4a/0x80
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455620]  [<c013790c>] ? irq_exit+0x8c/0x90
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455624]  [<c0113f8d>] ? smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x5d/0x90
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455631]  [<c0105003>] common_interrupt+0x23/0x30
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455635]  [<c010acca>] ? mwait_idle+0x4a/0x50
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455640]  [<c010288d>] cpu_idle+0x7d/0x140
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455643]  [<c036f3c3>] rest_init+0x53/0x60
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455650]  =======================
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455652] Mem-Info:
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455655] DMA per-cpu:
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455658] CPU    0: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455660] CPU    1: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455662] Normal per-cpu:
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455665] CPU    0: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd: 118
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455667] CPU    1: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd: 174
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455671] Active:95049 inactive:100234 dirty:9234 writeback:0 unstable:0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455672]  free:1221 slab:10170 mapped:16801 pagetables:1239 bounce:0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455676] DMA free:3492kB min:64kB low:80kB high:96kB active:3576kB inactive:3752kB present:15788kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455680] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 871 871 871
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455687] Normal free:1392kB min:3740kB low:4672kB high:5608kB active:376620kB inactive:397184kB present:892120kB pages_scanned:12935 all_unreclaimable? no
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455690] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455695] DMA: 777*4kB 49*8kB 0*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 3500kB
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455708] Normal: 188*4kB 12*8kB 9*16kB 1*32kB 0*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 1408kB
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455720] 174855 total pagecache pages
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455723] 18336 pages in swap cache
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455726] Swap cache stats: add 798147, delete 779811, find 585237/712426
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455728] Free swap  = 3674092kB
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.455730] Total swap = 4000144kB
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.459416] 229088 pages RAM
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.459416] 0 pages HighMem
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.459416] 12376 pages reserved
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.459416] 220507 pages shared
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.459416] 59796 pages non-shared
Dec  7 12:03:05 vega kernel: [356296.459790] eth0: Memory squeeze, dropping packet.

etc, multiple times.