Yes your "early 2008 model with the dual quad core Intel Xeon processors" can handle Lion as well as or better than Snow Leopard.
IMHO iCloud and the iCloud connection with the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch is worth the price of admission, i.e.. the $30 the Lion upgrade costs. In all the Macs around here, Lion has been completely stable and problem free.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?
