I can not say I was exactly pissed off by this situation. But I would say inadequate "user experience" was guaranteed. Well. It took me more then an hour but I payed for my 3G connection while away from WinXP VMs on my external HD. One thing is that VMWare somehow degraded the product for older OS with new major update. The other is why smart guys at e-bank use Windows only compatible "security" software at all which is not so needed in the real world. It is just unprofessional (though it looks like). I understand that developing "hardware enabled software security system" will attract a larger budget but isn't it about end user convenience anyway?
I had a success getting back to work OmniKey 3121 smart card reader with VMWare Fusion 2 + Windows 2000. Strange enough but Fusion 1.x had no hassle setup comparing to a newer one. Win XP worked wine as well.
Here is the tip (thanks for second device hint to VMWare forum guys):
Download and install your latest 3121 device drivers (I found driver for my OmniKey 3121 here). A couple of experiments shows that it is quite important to make full shutdown / startup after this step. Just restarting VM will not give a result.
Omit your obvious choice, disconnect the branded device and connect the second one. I have two of them:
1: Omnikey SmartCard Reader
2: Virtual CCID Card Reader 00 00.
So I disconnected #1 and connected #2, restarted VM, connected #2 again and was asked to update a driver for newly found hardware. I've chosen internet update and a path to directory with driver. Not sure which of those two worked but Windows finally found smart card reader.