g4 powerbook, will this run quickly?

Well i bought a 2.0 intel core 2 imac a few months ago and it was a lemon, kept hanging up after numerous formats and just opened up even osx apps slow. So im back to give it another try with either another intel mac or a g4 powermac.

I do graphic design (illustrator, photoshop, dreamweaver) and i want somethings thats going to run these programs not lighting fast but not as slow as adobe progs on a intel based mac either. I understand that since the programs i use arent universal binary that they will open slow on the intel based macs until cs3 final releases this summer. Would the g4 power mac with 512, 1.67ghz run pretty quick? Theres a few online for sale that i was looking into. This is the only way i know around the universal binary problem. Thanks!

Yes, those apps will run marginally better on a PPC system because they are designed for the PPC processor. No, they won't run as well with only 512 MB of RAM... and that goes for any system type. If those apps are your livelihood, then I would suggest a PPC system and make sure you get at least 2 GB of RAM.
That being said, an Intel machine will do you fine so long as you have enough RAM.

All the benchmarks I've seen show that the Adobe apps run about the same on Intel Macs as they do on G4 PowerMacs. If you're looking for something faster than an Intel Mac, a G4 is a waste of money.