The final battle's dialogue and Anakin's legs getting sliced were the best part of that duel. The problem, I believe, was how those two elements were executed in a cinematic sense. They lacked a logical timing and the emotional impact was missing completely. (Plus, having so much implausible nonsense surrounding them didn't help.) The leg scene itself felt abrupt and gratuitous in the way it was presented. It felt more like a moment to be observed and nothing else (oh, it seems his legs got cut off). Sadly, even the part with Anakin crawling on the ground was somewhat poorly executed and that was easilly the most moving scene in the PT.

Oh, and I agree about the old-men-and-inexperienced-warriors comment by Lucas. That's bugged me for a long time now. He completely negated his own reasoning in episodes two and three.

All in all though, I did like the lightsaber duels in TPM all around. They were a bit too flashy, sure, but the feeling of intensity present within them was fantastic. The final duel in that movie made the Sith seem very threatening (too bad the scene where Obiwan sliced him in half seemed so cartoony). I believe Darth Maul was a pretty sweet villain despite not being explored as a substantial character (as he should have been).