Vista is not only pretty it is also better in many ways.

The initial question is back to front IMHO 
It is not a case of how to maximise Vista, but how Vista is going to maximise the performance of your pc.

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html