Just to help you out by removing a variable from your test cases, there's
no rom distinction between "old" and "new" Palm III devices. The Palm IIIx
and Palm IIIe devices have a different rom, but I don't think that's what
you're talking about when you say old versus new.
All Palm III devices made to date have the same rom image in them. As for
why you're seeing what you're seeing, sorry, I don't know enough about how
the exchange manager works to give a good guess.
-David Fedor
Palm Developer Support