Well, mine is AMD 1Ghz, 512Mb PC133 Memory, Win98, Cable Modem and AGP 4 compliant Radeon 32Mb video (State of the art one year ago...) and near the STORM (not the fluffy clouds mind-you, but the storm front) my frame rate has dropped to only 14. The normal frame rate I see is 30-60.
I was online and playing the evening (Seattle time) that the unfortunate comment was made. At the time the storm was sitting just off the coast near where I and a number of other folks were flying (Me in a P51B. S! to all those who shot me down over and over. I even managed to get offed by a 202.) I am wondering how much of the grouse was a result of the storm and not the result of the clouds.
My understanding is that the storm front is a default feature that HTC would need to remove.
For myself, I am simply in love with the arena. Late last night Seattle time when there were only 9 people on, I still had no trouble finding trouble. So far as I am concerned, the only thing that could make it better is more ground vehicles to shoot up. (And dust clouds of course, but that would be rather counter productive frame rate wise.)