The Best Android ROM Out There

Hello Everyone ! My first post on XDA-developers forum , so Yes! I'm a noob as the registration video showed me .

So The Question is : Topic Title

Short Description :

I have Android 2.1 ( Official Update form HTC ) on my Hero , and I want to root it , but I'm not sure what ROM should I use . From my previous experience , CM was very good on my HTC Click / Tattoo , but in Hero I seen ( read ) that it's kind of slow .
There are lots of ROM's for Hero and I'm searching for one that meets up this conditions :

1. Extended Battery Life ( Currently ~ 2 Days , but if i use Wi-Fi or play games it drains very fast )
2. Good Call Reception ( just like it's now )
3. And the main criteria : since the ARM will be at ~760 mHZ ( i think ) , to be FAST .

I want to install APP2SD , and i'm not looking for eye-taking theme's , I want PERFORMANCE .
So please tell me your experience with this ROM's . Thank You in advance

So , here I'm back again with my Hero running elelinux ( the one updated on 22.03.2012 ) and I have some questions .

What's the medium battery life you get on this ROM ?
* for me the battery life is ok , but when I surf the internet on Mobile Data ( 2G Only selected ) the battery drains so fast , let's say something like 1 % every 1 ( maybe 2 ) minutes .

Also , I have problems with the Home Screen .
* because 2.3.7 doesn't have a Digital Clock Widget I have installed one from the market ( Retro Clock ) , it happens after exiting a " hungry " resource app , the Homescreen remains empty and i have to wait a bunch of seconds to re - appear . Any fix ?

Not really a problem , just not used to it
* if I plug in my headphone's ( with DSP Manager On ) the audio is great but after the song finishes the headphones make a noisy sound for 1 - 3 seconds , any fix for that ?

Also any tested speed improvement's ( without to much battery impact ) will be useful . Awaiting responses . Thank You , Raoul .

Thank you for the quick response , I locked the home , no problem so far .

Another problem , i forgot to mention :

* From time to time , my screen acts like I am clicking something , but doesn't enter that app or function , it only randomly appears like clicking but it doesn't do anything , maybe scrolling without me doing so .

Any advice ?