Thanks guys! This thread confirms my thinking. I have a FastATA in my A3000 and can get it to around 4,5 mbps in PIO3. So that's quicker than this SD2SCSI thing, which I first considered so I could free up a zorro slot, but not anymore.
PIO4 is unstable on my machine. From what I understand here I might even get PIO4 stable if I get a faster CF card (or potentially better IDE-CF adapter)? PIO 5 is not an option as it is not supported by any device, I'm told.