Desktop is black; so is any maximized app

[Shazzner]

I just upgraded to Karmic from 9,04 which was working swimmingly on my compaq nx7000; unfortunately now my desktop is black and if I add anything to the desktop it isn't visible but there. Worse still is that any application I maximize the window becomes black too.
Very annoying bug. I noticed desktop effects enabled but it's kind of slow.

[RedSingularity]

What does your xorg file look like?