'96 4dr LX is a great ride for what it is. Don't wory about the pokey performance. If you want to beef it up a little, and intake/header/exhaust will do you fine. That, or if you really don't like not having VTEC, H22a's are a pretty cost-effective swap these days.
That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing, once I do some major sound system work.
What kind of performance gain could I expect with I/H/E in the 96 LX? At the moment I'm planning on an AEM short ram intake, and 4-2-1 headers designed for lower-RPM gains. No idea on exhaust yet.