I have never experienced any slowdown shooting tethered however this doesn't mean that there isn't. My shooting tethered involves putting down the product (in my case accessories like, shoes, bags, belts, etc..) making a take, taking the product of the table and going for the next. This way it is unlikely you will ever run into any slowdown.
I cannot compare with a G4 since I am a Windows/PC man since 1992 and have only been using a MBP since July last year. In my experience/opinion the thing is the ultimate piece of hardware. It runs both XP as well as MacOS, it is fast, stable and has a usable screen as well.
Untethered shooting not a problem at all, fast 8Gb card and I am up & running.
I will be doing more shoes (it is shoes season) on thursday & friday, I will take my USB S-ATA drive with me to see how that goes.