Robin2:
The processor is not the limiting factor at all. A 16Mhz (or 8MHz) Arduino would be plenty fast enough.
The problem that I foresee is whether (or not) you can PROVE that it works. Nobody will remember the 5000 correct scores if it misses one single score in a vital match.IMHO if you decide to use wireless you must design it to be resilient so that the occasional missed message is not a catastrophe. Whether that can be done for your project I simply don't know because you have not told us enough about the limiting factors - perhaps because you are not yet conscious of them yourself. That's part of the reason for experiments - so that you can learn about the system and think about what safeguards you need to include.
WiFi will be very much worse for a real time system. The web system is designed to be reliable at the expense of possible delays. Think about how long it takes to load a web page on some days. Or how long it sometimes takes for an email to reach you.
I've been trying to convey to you the idea that what you need to focus on is your management of the limitations of wireless. I don't believe there is a technological "silver bullet" available to solve all your problems. At this stage of the prpject figuring out a solution is not really a programming problem. It's a management problem.
...R
Well. I guess I'll just have to keep working on this and see where it takes me. Worse comes to worse I'll come out of this learning a lot and being left with parts for other fun projects.
Can't say it enough, I appreciate the help.