First - I messed up the orc's first attack in my example - his rolls (after being wounded) should've been 9 and 14, rather than 9 and 10... Mea Culpa.
As to how fast it plays - all the work is on the DM and players before hitting the table if they are smart - no different than the detail on the existing character sheet, with the exception of adding the wound level chart, if desired (rather than making the DM tell you each time), and that the DM has to convert all the monsters and NPCs. In practice, it works about as fast as regular d20 until you get up to high level play, at which point it is quicker since you are pretty much still doing single-digit math rather than double or triple-digit math and there is no running total of hit points to keep track of (quick, how many hit points are left if you start out at 167 and take 12, 32, 15, and 27 points of damage, from a claw, two bites, and a club (with 12 of the 27 points being electrical), during a single round of combat each reduced by DR 5/piercing and having Energy Resistance (electrical) 5? Even if counting up rather than down, it still takes some time).
There are a few considerations:
1. How do you balance the need to provide skill points to add to your attack skill with the weapon (groups) while not short-changing the other skill points the players want to spend? I decided that the player can add up to half his skill basic ranks (i.e. the base he gets each level without the Int mod) into attack skills, with no additional skill points to offset the amount spent - it is a decent balance and forces players to make some hard decisions at level up time.
2. Can you substitute the BAB progression instead (i.e., when in normal d20, when your BAB hits +5, you roll 2d20L, when it hits +9, you roll 3d20L, etc.)? You could, but then I'd not use attack skills - which may be preferable if you don't want to deal with players keeping track of yet another skill. You still need to keep the "max ranks per level" regardless of which option you choose, though, to prevent runaway players...
3. What to do about iterative attacks? I just drop them - when, for example, the fighter hits 6th level, he'd get +6/+1 and his first iterative attack, but in the house rules I'm using, he is likely already rolling 2d20L at 5th level.
3. What to do about feats that affect combat bonuses? I just use them as-is except they affect anything that adds to a standard d20 roll affects the target number instead (i.e., using Full Plate when not proficient lowers the to-hit number, Dodge still boosts your AC by 1, Weapon Focus raises your to-hit number by 1, etc.)
Now, my next exploration is to see how using HARPs development points based upon attributes rather than a fixed "x + Int mod" skill points works, since it ties the skills and attributes together (i.e., a PC with an 18 STR could take a total of 8 skill ranks in any skill using STR as the controlling attribute, for example. So a PC with the array of S16 D12 C15 I11 W8 Ch9 could take a total of 6 STR skill ranks, 2 DEX skill ranks, 5 CON skill ranks, 1 INT skill rank, and no ranks in WIS or CHA skills. That is up to 6 ranks in any combo of Climb, Jump, Swim, Melee Attack; 2 ranks in any combo of Balance, Escape Artist, Hide, Move Silently, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Tumble, or Ranged Attack, etc.)