I didn't want to go through a proxy...unless somehow they made it incredibly fast
Forget what you know about the usual (public) proxy servers that you connect to other websites with. Yes they are slow - but this proxy server sits on your pc and the speed should be almost instantaneous. There should be no big delay added - and the fact that you aren't retrieving the graphical parts of advertisements - your browser should operate even faster than before.
I'm not sure what you mean that Admuncher problems are the CPU, the Taskbar icon and the trial. CPU usuage for me rarely ever hits even 2% - whereas the browser is about 20% and this is for maybe the 1 or 2 seconds while a page loads. I know my computer spends a lot more time waiting for me, that I spend waiting for my computer.
The taskbar icon is a problem? What? You don't like cows? It has options to turn off the animation, make the icon just a discrete black silhouette or even remove it entirely.
A problem with the trial? Well I guess they just want people to at least use it before deciding if they want to purchase (for the hours each week I spend using my browser, $25 is peanuts).
They are also undergoing some fairly significant improvements as to how the product works, and also to have a version ready for Windows 7 when it ships. (They shipped a new AdMuncher beta today).
And if you want value - you cannot beat their product support. Within the product you can connect to their live chat support channel (IRC) to talk to one of the developers (Jeff) if you have any questions with the product. This is the sort of support you just don't get with other free products.
If you are worried about AdMuncher getting in the way of other programs - you just exclude those programs from filtering - and they will completely bypass AdMuncher.
I know when I first started looking at AdMuncher - I had a lot of questions, and a fairly healthy dose of skepticism and "what if" questions. A couple of years down the track - I really can recommend the program. It is simple to set up, very powerful, customisable, unbeatable support - even if you don't think you need it, because you use AdBlock Plus or similar - it's worth grabbing an AdMuncher trial and just have a play with it.