Any Exmh/nmh buffs in the house?

[Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>]

I'll probably get a good flaming for this, but I wondered if there are
any experienced Exmh/Nmh users here who could answer this question.

I'm looking for some kind of interface that will be a little more
fleetfooted in massive mail/news groups.  In my experience and without
major tweaking or the like, I've found gnus to be poorly suited for
very large groups.  Even just a few thousand messages (under 4,000)
seems to be really very slow going with gnus, and I'm talking more
like 8-12 thousand.  

I don't really use these large groups like regular newsgroups and
mostly access them with search tools of one kind or another.  But I'd
also like some kind of mail/news like interface at times, and it is
just too nerve wracking trying to do that with gnus.

Anyway, cutting to the chase, I wondered if nmh or exhm combo would
offer somekind of interface that was a little speedier.  Can either or
both be used to access `foreign' groups?  Like my nnml like groups?

I don't really want to set these tools up like real mcCoy mail
readers, I just want to use what ever they have to offer in the way of
accessing these massive groups.