Phoenix is indeed very nice - very very nice. I use it as my goto version of PCLinuxOS for my old Celeron 2.0. It positively flies!!
Now - after some time, I also get into it a bit more in order to tweak it just a tat under the hood. A very pleasing experience, makes me fell I actually know something ...

Having said that, LXDE is very nice and fast as well - and from the onset pleasing to the eye. But so far I have found my home in Phoenix and my playground in LXDE.
And now I am fiddling with OpenBox ... choices choices - live is good.