I have a very ordinary Atom netbook in my desk drawer. With VS2010 (Express) and SQL Server 2008 (also Express) installed and being happily used periodically.

I have a very ordinary Atom netbook in my desk drawer. With VS2010 (Express) and SQL Server 2008 (also Express) installed and being happily used periodically. SQL Server is a little slow if you're doing anything very ambitious with it but it's fine for routine work, VS runs as well as anything does on the netbook. Just a personal opinion but I don't find it unacceptably slow or even noticeably slower than VS2008, which I've also worked with. I suspect your issue may not be purely with VS2010.