NEF / RAW to JPEG in better quality

[hawkyey1]

Until now I have been using PS Lightroom 1.1 to load my RAW images (shot in highest quality) from my Nikon D200. They are converted and copied to folder "My Pictures".
Having been on vacation I finally had to store some RAW images on flash cards to free up room on the camera's CF card. When I then converted the RAW to JPEG using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 I noticed a significant difference in quality of the JPEG - to the better. (The process took 1 minute/pic)

Is there a better and faster way to download and convert from NEF / RAW to JPEG. ? Or should I invest in some software that is from this millennium