If you use any exotic type for your @font-face, be sure to give it a text-shadow: 0px 0px 1px #fff; to smooth out the edges.
The shadow colour should be the same as the background colour. So technically, it's just a smoother, not a shadow.
The result is the same smooth render you would get with sIFR. Works wonders.
I've noticed that sometimes adding a blurred shadow disables sub-pixel anti-aliasing, and sometimes that makes things look better. I think, though, that there's a separate effect that makes the font look thinner when a blurred shadow is added that I don't really understand.
my comparison http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9537/textshadow.png
It's even worst at smaller font-size. My test font is relatively simple also, imagine the disaster the NYT font would be without a blank shadow.
I'm on XP + Chrome.
What it sounds like the white drop shadow did in your case was simply force ClearType on for that text.
Found a tool that optimizes the contrast http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx