[TriLUG] performance enhancements?

[bdsmith at nc.rr.com]

Fellow Linux Users,
I'm in the process of setting up Linux on my desktop machine, and am wondering what I can do to optimize the machine’s performance. I'm using reiserfs, I've tweaked the hard drive with hdparm, and I've set up prelinking. Since I'm running Gentoo, I’ve also taken advantage of some of Gentoo’s distro-specific performance enhancements (tweaked the use and compile time flags, used the desktop tuned Gentoo kernel sources). Are there any other general tweaks I can do to enhance responsivness/performance? This box is intended for everyday desktop use with a fair amount of gaming. 
Thanks

p.s. 
Has anyone had good or bad experiences wtih a specific domain registrar?