APS, APX, V0 and V2 - what's the deal?

APS is recommended cause its the most optimal for size/quality. APX nudges on the side of quality, quality that the majority wouldn't hear, so the recommended is APS.

I never saw fast extreme being ever recommended. Outside of lame 3.97b2 of course, but they dont even use the preset system there, they just put in the equalents of them in the new system in a comparison lists.

If you want "proper" rips in EAC, use the lossless guide in this forum... For mp3 quality, use whatever you find to be the best for your needs.

The -V system is used by the newest recommended version of Lame (3.97b2) which does not use presets. So its better because its a better encoder not because its a better commandline.
On that note, --vbr-new invokes a different, faster encoding algorythm, which in some cases MAY be worse quality then regular Vx, but for the vast majority it is actually superior. Oh, and its also much faster too. It is similar to the alt preset fast standard/extreme thing, just better.

320cbr is the highest quality because, obviously, you are forcing the most possible bits there is for encoding. So naturally you will squeeze more quality in when you have more space to use.

For faqs, a list of all the options is included in the helpfile that comes with Lame, and a list of recommended encoding options is present at Hydrogenaudios mp3 section. For ripping, Moguta still has his guide here, doesnt he?

Copied cds: not counting the lack of offset correction (which should only add milliseconds of difference anyway), the only downside for Nero is that it may not use secure ripping function. This means that it justs reads in the disc once and gets done with it. It won't notice ripping differences. Also, I'm not sure if it will copy track pregaps, but someone needs to check that.
If you want to make truly 1:1 copies, you can read the lossless guide which explains every detail from offset correction to detecting pregaps in a cd and such. Of course, ripping that way is significantly slower, but it produces bit-exact result for sure.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

And besides, who ever can hear the difference between -V 0 --vbr-new and 320k cbr anyway.

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