I was a little lazy to read through the whole thread. Probably, some of this has already been posted in here.
Here are some links and tips to help run games on the GMA card w/ATOM:
If you have a MSI Wind, then you can overclock the ATOM to approximately 2 Ghz on the newest BIOS. To overclock the ATOM, during start-up, hold down SHIFT+F10 with the AC adaptor plugged into the netbook. The power light should turn from blue to red.
Use this program to overclock the graphics card. Generally, it seems to make games generally run 5 to 15 FPS better:
http://www.gmabooster.com/
A T&L emulator (posted by michaelleung):
http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/tools/3d_analyze/download/
Another shader program (sometimes works better than 3DAnalyze):
http://www.transgaming.com/business/swiftshader/
I will not post the link to remove the logo from screens for swiftshader.
2 GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM / SSD harddrive (I am using base HDD) also help speed things up a bit. As most people have mentioned here, the ATOM processor and graphics card are the main problems. I don't play games on my netbook at all, but I can run Unreal 2004 at around 18 to 30 FPS with many bots on the screen. Without looking, I think my settings are on low-med or medium+ at 800x600? I would have to load it up to make sure.