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[alway]

What is the best design? Single layer, spread out? Based around a central stairway? I heard big open spaces can cause slower pathfinding, so should I try to enclose them via locked doors/walls when possible?

[Albedo]

Pathing through smaller area does have an effect, but it's reported as minor.  Besides, you can achieve much the same thru careful use of Restricted Traffic designations.

Smaller is the only real "better".  Smaller embark, fewer dwarfs, creatures and objects.  Also less moving water, no waterfalls (natural or artificial), no fluids less than 7/7 deep.

The wiki has some good info on maximizing under "fps" (and d11 is another good plan for many users.)

[Derakon]

Yeah, keep the dwarves down, make your only water supplies always be at 7/7 depth (aquifers are good for this), make the embark area 2x2, don't breed animals, and don't make too many items. For maximizing the utility you get out of your FPS, you should make certain that dwarven paths are short, so they spend as little time as possible getting from point A to point B.

Unfortunately, this kind of fortress is not very interesting to make.

[alway]

Unfortunately smaller is often not an option... You see, I am very... Particular about my embark location. It must have a magma pipe, no aquifer, flux stone, HFS, a river, trees, soil and all 3 types of rock (sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic). I am lucky if I can find that in a 6x6 embark in a world, let alone something smaller. 

I try to keep my creatures down, either by caging them all or periodic cullings.

I tried my luck with aquifers... I always end up drowning the lower half of my fort by accident.

[eerr]

well, the size of the world slows it down somewhat, but you can still mimick faster fort speeds by setting dwarves to [speed:1]

you won't have to worry about goblin sieges either!

[Albedo]

You might be asking to put a large pizza in a small to-go box.  Some older computers just cannot support newer (read "more demanding") game software.  And DF is that.

If your PC isn't fast, it isn't fast. Trying to play WoW over a dial-up line just isn't going to work very well, and a 6x6 embark with all the bells and whistles isn't going to be improved significantly because your paths are 5% more efficient.

Sorry.

[alway]

My computer is relatively fast (AMD Phenom II X4 920 CPU, released this year, NVIDIA 9800GTX+ GPU), I just like it to run at 100 FPS for as long as possible before it starts slowing down. 30 is what it usually settles at late into a fortress, and that makes megaprojects take forever to build.

On an unrelated note (not wanting to create another thread): if a caravan leaving your fort is killed by orcs, will that affect what/how much they bring the next time?

[Albedo]

You should make another thread, or, better, search for where this question has been asked a dozen times already.  Here, it's convenient for you, but no one else will find it easily.

Yes, 100% blame it on you. Even to declaring war on you if the orcs kill their liaison.