You are perhaps yes, better off with Suse..
Mandrake 9.2 is by far the most bloated slowest linux distribution I have ever used. I can't believe how slow it seems compaired to my previous linux instalations and windows 2000. On the nice side, It configured eaisly for all my hardware and also found my cable modem okay and did the dhcpd without much fuss for my wireless network. Mandrake comes with modules for almost every modern 3d card. I did however, download the Nvidia drivers from their website.. otherwise you are stuck running Mesa (ickk) Also, the package management is quite nice.
Previously I've run
Mandrake Linux 8.2
TurboLinux 6.0 (Heavily Modified)
Caldera Open Linux 2.2
Slakeware Linux 2.0 (I believe)
