Maya does have a PLE crazy...
and same question goes for how people on here have got 3D studio max
I am currently going through all the licencing crap for both Maya and Max for uni so i get them cheap... just have to wait for my unconditional letter from uni so i can send copies to show im a student...
Look for a direct x plugin aswell called panda, I havent used the ones crazy has posted and from the looks of it they may be a lot better than panda (I couldnt get my .x models to animate?)
Chewy
---------------------------
AMD Athlon64 3500 2.2GHZ | 1024MB ram | ATI FireGL v3100 128MB | WinXP