I believe pablob's Golden Allmine does not involve/require rooting. The answer is in that thread somewhere!
But I'm not convinced you need Google Android Market, either. I and many others get by without it.
However, as soon as I get up the courage and make a full backup, I plan to install the pablob upgrade because it seems like a stable, worthwhile improvement.
From reading other people's posts I would say yes, the upgrade should install pretty much the same. Be sure you unzip rc3 and read the instructions, don't just rename the whole file.
There's a lot you can do, and learn, with you PE just as it is, so if you are at all uncomfortable/unsure about doing any update or change to your system I would advocate caution.
I hope you will soon be getting full enjoyment from your PE!