I've posted my special build of IceWM.  This build does not use freetype and friends to 
render fonts so will be much faster.  I didn't change the dependencies so this special
version will claim to need freetype and friends.

http://webpages.charter.net/dbarnes3367/PC/Z50/packages-3.0/icewm-1.2.23.tgz

If you have time, give it a try.  If it works OK for you I will work on finishing the
mods/patches to make IceWM faster on hpcmips.

djb