Setup Apple Mail + Imap Gmail without downloading all attachments?

I'm running 10.5.2 and I thought I'd give Apple Mail another shot with my Gmail IMAP account -- Mail in 10.5 and 10.5.1 seemed buggy for me re: Gmail--

Anyway...

I'd like the ability to send and receive messages but I wouldn't mind avoiding downloading a few gigs of attachments. It seems to be doing it automatically at turtle speed-- like 3.2kb/sec-- I've had the program open and downloading since 10.5.2.

Any suggestions for me?

Thanks!!