Windows XP SP3 and Gaming: hot or not?

So here's the fact..Windows XP Service Pack 3 is faster...it speeds up windows xp by a good 10%. But how much of it good for gaming?

Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release - unlike w/Vista SP1, Microsoft made no promises of improved performance for XP - the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus. In fact, XP SP3 is shaping-up to be a "must have" update for the majority of users.

Weather this will translate to "improved gaming performance" will remain to be seen.
However from a gaming perspective, I personally prefer Windows Vista, even with Vista SP1, I didn't see too much of a difference in terms of performance. However, I did notice slower frame rates in Gears of War for the PC; nothing to hinder performance but yeah it was there. Did anyone else notice this? Would be mega cool, if someone could confirm this.

Now what I also tested with Vista SP1 and XP SP3 is three core elements of everyday use:
Multi tasking, I/O management and memory management.

Windows Vista was faster on all counts for me, SP3 was still faster than SP2.
I noticed that Multi Tasking was a lot smoother with SP3 almost 5% faster. Then I/O management was the same and Memory Management was much much better on SP3. I saw a good 6-7% decrease in memory usage.

Do let me know if anyone else had similar results.
As far as gaming is concerned, we will have to wait until our test results come back. It should be done over the weekend, so look for a post on this by 22nd - 23rdish.

until then.