vmware is ok, but I've always found Virtualbox easier to set up, and get things running properly. There have been some exceptional performance improvements lately.
Well, two years ago is when I started to use. I wouldn't call this an actual performance test, but vmware couldn't run starcraft in it where vbox ran it perfectly.
I've been using it ever since. I'm actually finally getting into internal and bridged networks. I have 8 gigs of ram -- time to build huge networks :D