Welcome to the site!
And yes, I would definatly unlock it and flash to a custom ROM.
You seem like you could be easily irritated bug bugs and glitches so I would recommend MightyROM, its super stable and fast. And from what I hear he has IE working very well, but I wouldnt know personally. I dont like using it at all, Opera seems much faster.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=79579