eMule is generally much better, it's fantastic for hard-to-find stuff.
i use shareazza, but with gnutella2 network ONLY enabled. i've never gotten anything off gnutella1 (probably the reason for your long queues). gnutella2 is much faster than anything but bittorrent, but the number of available files is lower. don't bother using eDonkey with shareazza, their implementation is buggy, as i recommended above, go with eMule for that.
btw, there is a setting in shareazza where you can specify the maximum queue length you'll accept. you might trying setting that to 200 or somehing, which will keep the app searching for copies until it locates sufficiently short queues.
another thing, for all filesharing you'll need to pretty much shut off your personal firewall or if you're an expert user, punch holes at the correct ports, or sharing won't work properly. you need to be able to accept incoming connections on the necessary ports free & clear.
if you're behind a router/firewall (wireless router connected to cable modem, etc.) that could also be a problem. if you have one of these, log into the admin screen and either punch holes in it, or put your computer in the 'DMZ' while sharing and see if you get better response (remember to switch it back onto the protected network when you're done though).
DO get yourself a copy of peerguardian2 to protect against the RIAA, etc..
Bittorrent is good and you can get very fast speeds, but the torrents only live a week or so after being posted. By contrast, eMule you can search for anything anybody's sharing. Good bittorrent sites include thepiratebay.com.
Good Luck and Safe Downloading!
