I currently use KDE 3.5 but am considering switching to a different Linux Distribution and using KDE 4.1.3 or may even wait for KDE 4.2 but since I'm using an Atom based Netbook I'm wondering how well it would run. Would I experience any type of slowdown with system performance?
I do mostly minor work, mostly Mozilla Thunderbird for email, Firefox for web browsing, OpenOffice for word processing, and at times some of the programs like Kontact for scheduling and other things. I have 2GB of memory on the system but often do have these programs open at the same time. Would I experience any type of slowdowns or performance problems?

It's been a couple weeks since I installed Mandriva 2009. That's the version of KDE it's running. Mandriva used to be such a solid distribution till they decided to put this one out with KDE4 and Firefox 3. Both of which crash on me on a regular basis.

Obviously someone died in the executive line-up at Mandriva and the newcomer must have migrated from Fedora's team.

It's nicer than 3.5 though, probably just because it's a change.

I was running Kubuntu 8.10 on my Atom powered netbook for a bit, and it worked fine. Well, let me qualify that. Atom is certainly powerful enough to run KDE 4.1.3, but I'm not sure 4.1.3 is really ready for prime time.

How important is the graphics processor to KDE 4.1.3? I don't even know offhand what processor is used by most Atom based netbooks but I'm wondering if that could be more of an issue than the CPU.

My Dell Mini uses an integrated Intel 945 graphics chipset, which isn't the most powerful out there and Kubuntu didn't have any serious performance issues. That said, I'm sure if you load it up with a bunch of eye candy, it could become one.