I usually stucked to the "keep your model at the zero point" method too, i just saw a nice video about a root motion computer, it actually allows you to use animations where the force is controlled by the animation. It gives a really realistic looking movement ingame, quite impressive.

Check out that video for example, its made with Unity but this shouldn't be the point now. I like how the zombie walk really makes this stop/go movement:

http://vimeo.com/12052874

Maybe someone could write such systems for 3dgs, could make many animations look more realistic.