If you're trying to get queries running faster, don't waste your time looking at partitioning, it's not a general performance tuning technique. Performance improvements are possible from partitioning, but it usually requires that the queries are written specifically to take advantage of the partitioning.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability