I figured I would also try network rendering using one additional PC.

Same setup as before (i7 / 12GB RAM) plus a
Windows XP Pro
AMD 2.99 Ghz / 2GB RAM

C7 Pro (32 bit) - 3 minutes, 58 seconds
Networking provided 2 additional threads

C8 Pro (64 bit) on the i7 PC and 32 bit render node on the AMD  PC - 10 minutes 24 seconds
Networking provided no additional threads.  Although the 2nd PC was showing as available it never changed to working,  I uninstalled / reinstalled the render node software twice with the same results.

I still need to load the 32 bit version of the C8 Pro application on the i7 PC to see if it's a 64 bit problem.