Comment Spam

I need some tips here from the Greater Internet Community, so chime in if you have any suggestions! I’m getting annoyed with comment spam on a couple of the websites I manage:

First, on this WordPress blog—I have been using the IntenseDebate WordPress plug-in which offloads some of the anti-spam processing, eases logins with authentication from many sources (so most users don’t have to create a new account they’ll never use again), and keeps the comments integrated in the local WP database. However, there are a couple frustrations with it:

• I still have to set the comments to require my approval, because 99% are spam. One by-product of this is that legitimate comments don’t get approved until I notice them pending, which may be days or weeks later.
• Worse yet, it slows the page loads considerably. All of the optimization I could do for WP caching and all that is nullified by the slow-loading IntenseDebate scripts and off-site content.

Any suggestions for me? I know Akismet is supposedly the unparalleled comment spam plug-in, but is it really up to the hype?

Secondly, I manage a phpBB Forum for a Kingdom of Loathing game clan I’m a part of, and I’ve had to set the new registrations to administrator-approved only due to the dozens of spammer logins. This means I get dozens of email a day requesting approval, which I promptly delete because I can’t keep track of who is legit or not.

So, anyone have any suggestions for a plug-in or other method to prevent comment spam in phpBB?