Transfer speed in Target Disk mode

This may not be a question as I am not even interested in the "why" any more.
My MBP (2.0GHz, 2GB Ram, 7200rpm HD, Week 15) is in target disk mode, and I am copying my Aperture Library (50GB) over to my PowerMac G4 via firewire. Obviously the firewire ports on both sides are Firewire 400, but the file transfer speed appears to be noticeably slow compared to a similar transfer between my external hard drive and the PowerMac G4.
When I copy over the exact same library (50GB, about 40,000 files according to Finder) from the external HD to the PowerMac, it takes less than 40 minutes. Now between my MBP and PowerMac G4, Finder estimates more than 2 hours.
I am curious why this is the case when both the external HD and my MBP have 7200rpm drives. Has anyone noticed this too?

Disks aren't (usually) rated by read/write speed, at
least not by the manufacturers. They sell by
capacity.
You’re kidding, right? Drive manufacturers specify transfer rates, average, minimum and maximum seek times. Rotational latencies and cache buffer sizes. All these parameters are direct measures of performance, and people who design and build systems pay close attention to them. I know I do. I’ve been putting 10,000 RPM Ultra-160 and now Ultra-320 SCSI drives and dual-channel SCSI adaptors in my Linux desktops for several years, now. These parameters have a large effect on performance, obviously.
It's not a question of 'consider', it's a question of
verifiable fact - data on the inner part of the
spindle cannot be written or read as quick as data on
the outer part. …
If you cannot tolerate the minimum speeds, then you cannot use that part of the drive. If you’re going to use the full capacity of the drive, you won’t get the speed. You are forced to de-rate the drive one way or the other.
That’s what I’m saying.
In other words, if you’re going to use the whole drive, then you’re going to get the speeds you get. Avoiding filling it is not really an option, is it?
Randall Schulz

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