The older Marmot Precip jacket I have is rather mediocre at best - it leaks after 30 minutes of light rain when riding my bike in it. I tried to fix that with repeated washes in Nikwax to refresh its repellancy, but no change. The fabric starts to soak in about 15 minutes into a rain, and soon after that you feel the moisture on the inside. For upper body protection, I will always go for a heavier gore-tex than the Precip series offers.
Breathable for one person may be tropical greenhouse for another - depends on how hard you are moving, how much humidity is around you and what temperature is outside. The cooler it is, the better these things work. I rarely have any issues staying dry in winter, while in warm summer T-storms, you will get too warm very easily, even with vents wide open.
The only new thing in breathable fabrics that came out recently is Mountain Hardwear's "Dry.Q Elite" fabric, that is allegedly so breathable that it feels very different from tranditional gore-text types of fabrics, as it won't create that layer of warmth that is associated with the typical membrane fabrics. They don't even put pit zips into those jackets.
Thing is - they are highly discounted these days, so there may just not have been the expected success, even with Uli Steck promoting these items. Steep and Cheep has had quite a few of these go through recently. These are all high-end items so even at the Steep, they were still asking around $200 at like 60% off...
example:
http://www.backcountry.com/mountain-har ... acket-mens" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
No personal experience, though. I use Gore-Tex Pro Shell jackets winter and summer - with lots of zippers I can usually keep the temps inside at bay, and the rain stays out, 100%.
I also have a pair of light Marmot Precip pants, which are quite nice in warmer weather, just not really waterproof, but good enough for my needs when just hiking. Just wioshed I had bought the XL, since the L is rather tight if worn over any other clothing.
In winter I use a pair of gore-tex pro shell bibs from Arcteryx - bombproof, lots of vent zippers, but obviously a single purpose design you can't really use once it gets above 45 degrees.