I know there's hundreds of progs. to this, however, any suggestions for a good fast converter - possible a free one????
mencoder. Accepts rm/rmvb files as input and can output to an XviD avi. It is also free unlike I think winavi. You can use Gabest's dshow real filter and real codecs with other apps though, like frameserving to VirtualDub.
One choice could be Tinra + RealAlternative, but I'm not so sure regarding speed of that http://www.geocities.com/tinra04/