I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 but anyone using older kernels will find this may apply to them.  My Intel graphics are very slow with the default Xorg settings but by using "EXA" acceleration, scrolling down windows of text becomes pretty snappy.

Just edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Option          "AccelMethod" "EXA"
        #Option         "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
        #don't use the "greedy" option, it just causes the screen to lockup/stall along with other problems
EndSection

You'll notice that I disabled the "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy" option, it causes the screen to lockup/stall unnecessarily for some reason.

Just enabling EXA acceleration and rebooting and/or restaring XServer gave me a huge improvement in 2D graphics performance, especially when scrolling.

I am still never satisfied with the Linux graphics performance though, it really does hold Linux back and is another huge thing holding back/slowing down Linux Desktop adoption.