the story of the PT does not need to be changed all that drastically.

I must say I completely disagree with this. To me, the PT is a train wreck of nigh-Biblical proportions, and they're all quite possibly among the worst scripts ever filmed in big-budget productions (and I even count Michael Bay). Apart from the inept direction, the ugly effects and the mostly clueless acting (even by greats like MacGregor, Neeson, August, Lee and Stamp (and to a lesser degree Smits and Portman)), the films have virtually no exciting moments. They're overwrought and wordy, and yet the action is just too much leaving you with no feel for the situations (e.g. the hyperkinetic sabre fights are way less exciting than the pedestrian Vader/Obi-Wan duel from A New Hope).

You need to go far to save this mess, imo. Magnoliafan's edits of eps 1 and 2 nearly do the trick for me, but they're too long, and a lot more needs to go. I'm looking forward to seeing JasonN's 3-in-1 edit. I also like TMBTM's pan-and-scan, dusty, silent edits a lot (but he could have gone even further with plot changes, imo).