Before the patch, I'd managed to find a few workarounds. Turning vsync on and making RAGE's priority in the task manager "high" meant I was able to access the game, and even play without it freezing every two seconds. Then the patch dropped, and now I can't even access the menu without the game stuttering to a halt.
I really would just like to play RAGE.
Here's my specs:
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghzx2
Vista 64 bit
4 gigs of RAM