If drivers are an issue, you're probably stuck as you'd need an entire new base OS, which entails a LOT of work. If you haven't already, try 2.1 to see if that's better with your hardware. If you need something newer than that, you're in for a lot of work or stuck. If you can back port drivers to an 8.1 or 8.3 base, and compile your own kernel with all our kernel patches applied to the source, that's easier to do manually and replace the kernel than to run through an entire build.