I've been using Litestep on my Windows machines for a couple of years now, and initially used Windowblinds as well but found that to be a severe resource hog. Once you configure the right them properly, Litestep is very invaluable. I've gotten used to having atleast 9 desktops with various programs running in each desktop. With this setup I can have more windows open and at the same be uncluttered..
I'm not sure what problems or issues you had with Litestep, but to date I've used it on Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, W2K Professional and now WinXP Profressional. I've finally found a theme that works really well for me..so I would give it a shot again..though the Litestep community seems to be in a state of flux right now, you can still grab a pretty recent version of it and some interesting themes..
There are other GUI replacements, Windowblinds (Stardock) actaully makes their own, but it costs money..not sure about the resource impact..there are a coupe of others but in very much their youth..of all of them Litestep is the one that has advanced the most..Regards