well it seams with a little will and determination you can achieve almost anything !
i have managed to install KDE4 with compiz-fusion and emerald on both machines 1.) AMD 4000, nvidia 6200, 512ram ,20gig (ide)hdd ubuntu hardy. -grainy!
2.) intel centrino 1.4, intel intergrated graphics gm825 512ram gutsy -solid !
neither machine are cutting edge but both are pretty stable (as stable as xp or vista) so long as you dont ask the world of them. the widgets seam to make the bigest difference to the stability.
the key seams to be installing kde 3 or gnome first as base fully updating the install, adding all and configuring your window managers (compiz emerald) also you will need to add ccsm & fusion-icon, log out log into kde 4
then start up fusion icon..... et viola wobbly windows a 4 dimentional desktops for all to play with...................
there is a simple point and click solution.