"I just downloaded the Adobe After Effects CS3 Public Preview updated version and was able to run some tests, let me tell you this is FAST!

My test machines:
Mac Pro 2.66GHz
2GB RAM
After Effects 7
After Effects CS3 preview 8.0.0.283

Power Mac G5 2GHz Dual Processor
4GB RAM
After Effects 7
After Effects CS3 preview 8.0.0.283 (only recognizes 3GB of RAM)

Test file:
1:30 DVCPROHD 1080i 60fps
KeyLight 1.2v5 (received Universal Binary version from The Foundry)
Auto Color correction

Times to Complete:
G5 Dual 2GHz, AE7 = 1hr 52min
G5 Dual 2GHz, CS3 = 1hr 47min

Mac Pro 2.66GHz, AE7 = 1hr 10min
Mac Pro 2.66GHz, AE CS3 = 20min

As you can see from before the Mac Pro is faster in AE7 even running under rosetta, as we already knew, but the Mac Pro completely stomps the G5 with the new CS3 build. Thanks for the great site!
(he later wrote)
Add these times:

Test File:
1:10 DVCPROHD 720p 30fps:

G5 Dual 2GHz, AE CS3 = 18min

Mac Pro 2.66GHz, AE CS3 = 5min

Can't do an AE7 test on this one because I started the project in CS3.

-Donald"

"Hey there, I saw Donald's post earlier and downloaded the AE CS3 preview to test it out too. I just ran the old Nightflight Render on a Mac Pro and a G5 and saw an immediate improvement in both systems.
However, I didn't get nearly the same stomping performance from the Intel. Maybe its because of the plug-ins. Go figure. In my experience, I get wildly different results depending on plug-ins sometimes. The main reason I hang onto the G5 is that Color Finesse seems to love it. Anyways...

(Nightflight Render)

Mac Pro 2.66GHz (4 GB RAM) - 69 sec in AE-CS3, 154 sec in AE-7

G5 2.5GHz Quad (4GB RAM) - 78 sec in AE-CS3, 155 sec in AE-7

Multiprocessing was enabled on both systems, so there was a big improvement as far as Nightflight goes. Not surprisingly, the universal code of CS3 definitely improves Intel performance more than it helps the G5 though! But like I said. I didn't the monster difference that Donald got, especially if one takes the faster clock speed of the Intel system into account. Maybe if I had an Octo-Core Mac Pro, the G5 might have gotten trounced.
James"

Donald also had a 2.66GHz Mac Pro (2GB of RAM) but his (4GB RAM) G5 was only a Dual 2GHz model (not a 2.5GHz Quad like yours) - plus he used different (much larger/longer) test files - note his times to complete were much longer.