Another thing I forgot to ask that could be a concern.

What are you using for an OSC at the PIC and how are the configuation bits set?
Can you connect the PIC directly to Hyper-Terminal and receive text correctly ? If so then you know the PIC is running at the expected speed.

Try inverted mode with out a 232 chip and then try true mode with a 232 chip.
Doing these test should help find the problem.