especially considering it doesn't look nearly as good as other games that run better.
Uhh, like what? It has every nifty graphical-whiz bang that any other game has at the moment.
You really have to see EQ2 in action to get a feel for the graphics. Let me tell you, they're damn impressive. Watching someone run through a field as they leave a wake of waving grass behind them is really nice. Or the rippling water as you run through it. And some of the spell effects are incredibly cool.
I'm running the game on the balanced setting and it runs fine. (considering I have a 2-year old system) There's plenty of eye candy even though some features are turned off. The great thing about the engine is that you can customize EVERYTHING. There are entire sections in the options menu for water, particles, textures, flora, etc. It's quite easy to make the game playable at the expense of a little eye candy.
here are my specs for reference:
AMD 2600
1 gig ram
9700 Pro