In this paper we consider the joint performance of fountain codes and 802.11a/g PHY modulation/coding. We consider optimality both in terms of maximizing goodput and minimizing energy, and results are presented for both theoretical and experimental channel models. In contrast to studies in cellular networks, we find that in 802.11a/g WLANs the cross-layer approach of a higher-layer fountain coding with a PHY layer modulation and FEC coding can yield very limited gains, and the PHY modulation/rate that optimizes the uncoded multicast performance is also close to that for fountain-coded multicast traffic over a wide-range of network conditions. This is potentially an important observation as it indicates that in 802.11a/g WLANs cross-layer design for multicast rate control would bring few benefits and PHY layer rate control can be carried out without regard to the use of fountain coding at higher layers.