Just a small update:

I use linux (ubuntu natty 64bit), still cant get namecoind to download the block chain.

$ namecoind getinfo
{
    "version" : 32451,
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "blocks" : 0,
    "connections" : 8,
    "proxy" : "",
    "generate" : false,
    "genproclimit" : -1,
    "difficulty" : 512.00781274,
    "hashespersec" : 0,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1311269883,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "errors" : ""
}

already tried to delete the database, config, no changes. Letting it run for 2 hours didnt change anything either.