Trying to make StepMania run better in Linux

[FCKGW]

First, some specs that I think matter:
AthlonXP 1.4GHz (1600+) overclocked to 1.6GHz (2000+)
256MB PC133 SDRAM
ATI Radeon LE 32MB (this card is also known as a Radeon 7200)
Fedora Core 2 (single boot)

I've been running StepMania on Linux (Fedora Core 2) for a while now. The frame counter shows 60-70fps during a song, but the arrows don't quite move as smoothly as an arcade machine even with minimum graphics settings (640x480, 16-bit, no AA, etc.). My Windows box, on the other hand (same CPU, 512MB DDR SDRAM, GF4 Ti4200), has the graphics settings maxed out and the arrows still run as smooth as an arcade machine. My parents' computer (Duron 1.6GHz, 256MB DDR SDRAM, nForce onboard video) also runs StepMania very smoothly with all settings maxed.

I've upgraded the CPU on my Linux box from an Athlon 900@933 to its current [email protected] and it didn't do much. I also upgraded from a Radeon 7000 32MB to its current Radeon LE 32MB and that made it noticeably smoother and increased the frame rate from 30-40fps to 60-70fps, but it's still not as smooth as I'd like it. StepMania also runs much slower when I have a few programs open in the background like Firefox, GAIM, OpenOffice, etc. It actually runs slightly better when I just run from a failsafe terminal, which is just a barebones window manager with an xterm and nothing else (I launch SM form the xterm).

What do you think I should upgrade on my Linux box? The video card makes sense, since moving between two similar videocards (Radeon 7000 and LE) made a difference. Also, the binary ATI driver won't work for Radeons prior to the 8500, so I think Fedora is using the DRI driver or something similar. Maybe a cheap GeForce2-4 or MX would work better? The RAM also makes sense, since the more programs I have running, the slower it goes (I'm not sure if it's swapping, though; I'll have to run top sometime when SM is running).

I'm sorry for the long post on one problem. I hope there's a Linux person here who knows what it takes for StepMania to run well. Thanks for any advice you can give me!

[Promit]

I can't really help you, unfortunately.

However, I've suspected for a while now that the StepMania rendering engine is not that good. I have the source, but I haven't gotten it to build with Visual Studio yet, and I'll be damned if I have to install Dev C++ for it.