I think the 38400 baud connection is a bigger issue than the CPU load. When I get Ethernet working I think there is a decent chance that I won’t need CloudFlare—especially if I can find a full 32-bit server that really uses the potential of the 386. Now to wait for that card to arrive in the mail. ;)

Edit: If you want to visit the page directly without CloudFlare, go to http://trombone.zapto.org instead.

I guess the next challenge is gigabit ethernet (!!!) for the 386

There are 100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet) cards for the ISA bus, which in practice can apparently be around 50% faster than 10 Mbps Ethernet over such a bus. However, they seemed pretty expensive compared to the ubiquitous 3com Etherlink III that are available quite cheaply. I think Ethernet will still make a huge difference in terms of serving this site.