Does anyone have experience with xrdp to the point where can speak to the speed of it?

Windows RDP is fairly fast even over a remote connection. Is xrdp similar, or does it more so perform like VNC?

Honestly, I've not used it much, but when I have the performance isn't too bad at all. That said, I'd strongly suggest you think about WHY you need this. Linux isn't Windows..you can very easily manage your server without a GUI. And you can still run X applications over a single port (SSH with X forwarding), so even if you DID need a GUI based app, you could still run it.

Oh no, not for a server. Agree. Thinking about going with a single desktop computer that access over RDP (through SSH) for everyday tasks instead of a laptop. Like linux better than Windows but never tried Linux over RDP.

I started using xrdp to remotely manage an internal server from a work supplied Windows desktop when the central IT administration started white listing allowed software. This killed the Cygwin installation that I used to use for SSH access. On the internal network, I see no difference in performance between xrdp and native Windows RDP servers. I use Windowmaker as the window manager, which provides a fast session startup.

One performance benefit I have observed with xrdp is that applications start up and run faster than when run using SSH with X forwarding. (The Firefox browser is an exemplar case.)