If memory serves, Opera was always more performant, they just got hosed by dominant web sites like hotmail, msn, etc. intentionally breaking the css/markup bein

If memory serves, Opera was always more performant, they just got hosed by dominant web sites like hotmail, msn, etc. intentionally breaking the css/markup being served and other websites that used explicit browser sniffing and would refuse to load real content for anything but IE.