Hmmm i wouldn't say that KDE is faster than Gnome... its the other way around... atleast if you compile them both by hand... and rearding the "sluggish" apperence of GNome i have to disagree... i find it easier to get my Gnome 2.4 to look neat than KDE... Feel free to have a glance at my screens:
http://www.ne-ro.net/screenshot3.png
http://www.ne-ro.net/screenshot4.png