Oh yeah, I hear you on the head scratching, believe me. Well so far on the built in card I have managed to compile chromium -j5, which i couldn't do for the two weeks prior. Same build, so i know it wasn't an upstream or ebuild problem. Damn.
Next step is to get X running again and do it one more time. Last thing i want to do is go from a 9800gt to an integrated 3300, but i suppose it's better than nothing. At least i had something to test on.