I did a little digging (actually googling) and found the solution to the nagging px.dll problem that WinAmp pops up every time you run it. 

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=946663fd0535e647d7ff2814a9ed8d65&postid=2119645

Unfortunately, I couldn't locate that pesky px.dll file on my system, so I fired up an XP VM in VPC07 and installed the latest Winamp there, copied it from my VM to the desktop, then copied it into the correct system folder.  Vista/VPC wouldn't let me go directly into the folder due to the UAC.

Today I replaced my old Seagate 120GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM SATA I hard drive with a new Seagate 300GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM SATA II drive.  My WEI score jumped from 5.1 to 5.6 for the primary hard disk!!  Nice!  There was no change when I went from 2GB to 4GB.

My current WEI scores are:

Processor:           5.8      Intel x6800 @ 3.47GHz

RAM:                   5.9      4GB PC2-7200 (OCZ Gold900)

Graphics:             5.9     nVidia 8800GTX 768MB

Gaming graphics: 5.9      nVidia 8800GTX 768MB

Primary HD:         5.6      Seagate 300GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM SATA II

Newly updated WEI for my original Vista test box

 Processor:           4.8     Intel Pentium D 930 

RAM:                    5.5    2GB PC2-5300

Graphics:             5.9     Ati X1800 GTO

Gaming Graphics: 5.7     ATi X1800 GTO

Primary HD:         5.0     WD 120GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM ATA 

It's too bad that WEI is capped at 5.9, since it's hard to believe that an 8800GTX and an X1800 are that close!! One unfortunate thing I found out about this the X1800 is that it uses shared memory, even though it's got 256MB onboard.  I haven't found a way to disable it yet.

Well, being stubborn I decided to give nVidia another try.  Manually removed all the old drivers and reinstalled with my AV software disabled.  I just booted back up with all the newest nVidia drivers installed and no bluescreen yet.  It's too early to tell if I got a good install, but I'll post here as "testing" continues.

nVidia offered up another version of video drivers for the 8800GTX and guess what!?!?!?!?

Hiberation and sleep under Vista x64 now work.  I tried both and I'm able to get my vidia back after returning from hibernation or sleep!!!!

Update:  After 4 nvstor64.sys bluescreens on my system the only way to get any stability was to do a system restore before last weeks Windows updates.  Reapplying the 100.64 drivers didn't fix the hibernation/sleep issue this time. 

While for the most part I like the Vista experience, my optimism is slowly being eroded.

1. No hibernation or sleep.  I cannot get Vista to wake up again.  I only get a black screen.  I've updated to all the latest BIOS and drivers available for both my video card and motherboard.  This wouldn't be too bad except for the long boot time and #2 below...
2. Looooooong, long, long domain logins...what's it doing for so long before I get to the desktop?  it's not DHCP or DNS
3. Odd several second random delays with the spinning "stargate"
4. Windows Media 11 is horrible 
   1. Winamp 5.3 is not compatible
   2. iTunes runs slowly and poorly and installs drivers that WOW64 disables--there is a Vista compatible version in the works
5. No 3Ware management utilities for my RAID card, the software installer says it requires 64bit Windows XP or 2003.
6. No nVidia nTune support for my 680i motherboard
7. WinRAR isn't integrated into Explorer and can only be launched by double-clicking the program short-cut and then deal with the UAC stuff.  3.70 vista compatible in beta though
8. No x64 drivers for the MS fingerprint reader
9. No drivers for my digital camera...come on, it's essentially just a USB drive.

I'm pretty excited about Vista, now that I've finally gotten all the drivers I needed.  Well, the only one holding me back was one for my eVGA 8800GTX video card (x64, of course).

I' also excited about picking up a retail upgrade of Vista Ultimate from Fry's tomorrow.  According to their ad, it looks like you get a huge amount of "free-after-rebate" stuff with the purchase. 

I was just reading about the new EULA changes in Windows Vista.  MS has modified the EULA so that you can only reassign a Vista license one time.   I've gotta say that I'm not too happy about it.  Since I'm what the industry calls an "enthusiast" or "cutting edge adopter" I usually upgrade my primary system at least once a year with a new CPU/MB combo, video card, or both.  I am not looking forward to having to shell out $200-300 for every other upgrade so I can run Vista.

Sometimes it really seems like MS does want to punish us for using Windows. 

Instead of buying a new Core 2 Duo system this fall, maybe I should get a new Mac Pro Dual Core Xeon, with my education discount I can grab the dual 2.66Ghz dual-core system for only $2300.  I've considered it, since the price is really hard to beat, but I do want to be able to run Vista with a new DX10 video card for future games. 

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Update:  MS has redefined this policy to meet the needs (and demands) of the enthusiasts!!