Sorry, lost track of this thread a little bit.
The A1200 has an internal IDE controller, the connectors of it are for direct connection to 2.5" IDE devices, the kind you'd normally find in laptops.
It is possible to connect 3.5"/5.25" IDE devices, the kind found in desktops and towers, to it as well, you'd only need an adapter cable (judging from the size of your internal Harddrive chances are you already have 3.5" harddrive and adaptercable to match).
Now, to test the CD-drive you've got, you'll have to find out if it's SCSI-flavour or IDE-flavour. The IDE ones normally are rather easy to identify due to the jumpers for selecting SL (Slave) MA (Master) or CS (CableSelect). The SCSI ones are not too dificult as they should have some jumpers for setting the SCSI adress (and sometimes it's even spelled out on the label ;-)). If it is SCSI you need access to a SCSI controller, if it is IDE you can easily hook it to a PC to check it.
If you've got a SCSI version you'd need a SCSI-controller, which are (hardly) available for PCMCIA-slots. Note that I vaguely remember that those controllers tend to get useless with certain accelerators, so if you're planning on getting an accelerator it's a nice option to no pick-up.
I'd put my money on getting an IDE CD-drive. The biggest dare would be hacking it into your A1200's case (near impossible) or do some nice DIY where you create an external IDE solution. (or you could do the same I did when I was still a student, runnning an A3000 and just route the ribbon-cable and powercable out of the case and leave the drive exposed to the environment).