Stig Mogensen has offered us the following clue :

>> 1.) Is it really faster or is that just a myth? My machine is an
>> AMD64 3400 with 1GB of ram.

Probably a myth. I cannot see a difference between my Gentoo and Mandriva.

>> 2.) Is there a similar tool to YaST for installing new packages and
>> configuring the machine? I understand the benefit of compiling from
>> source but, where possible, I would prefer to avoid that and the
>> headaches that come with it!

Installing new packages is very easy. But I compile everything and sometimes
it does not work (rarely). Then you need to find why and you learn a lot.
Problems are solved within 1-2 hours generally, thanks to the very pro
community. Gentoo is imo for people who really want to know their machine
in detail. Very interesting. Learning the details forces you to adopt a
good discipline and teaches you to understand things, not just look from
far away.

>> 3.) I assume there are not the MP3 restrictions like with Suse now?

No restriction, only on dvd which need the "illegal" libdvdcss.

>> 4.) How good is it at detecting hardware and has anyone managed to get
>> a WG311T card, or something with the same chipset, working?

Quite good. I use WG511 without any trouble.

>> 5.) Does it come with loads of delicious eye candy and customisations
>> for KDE which look so cool!!!????!!

This is not a gentoo issue.

>> 6.) Is it worth the change?

I tried a couple of distros and will not abandon Gentoo until I stop beeing
interested to look under the hood. Anyway, Linux desktop without a need for
manual adjustments is not for tomorrow so this is not going to happen any
time soon. The Gentoo community is excellent, this is a sufficient reason
also.