CM7 isn't stable there is just a rc out. So you must have been running CM6 which is based off 2.2 not 2.3.

Hmm, maybe it was the RC.

Also, I may be completely overstating how slow it was. It definitely wasn't unusable, but it felt slower than it should have been. This was after multiple wipes to multiple ROMs too.

Consider how much data you're putting on it. No phone is going to be fast when you ask it to pull down 5gb of email as some of my users do. The iPhone isn't that magical.

And how does utilizing more storage affect the processing or memory capacity of an iPhone or Android phone?

Is your sdcard slow, by any chance? A slow sdcard could affect performance if you -- like me -- keep most of your apps on it.