Free transforming text in PS7

I'm using Photoshop 7 and am trying to free transform text, specifically putting it on a slant. I'm using Decker at 9pts with an anti-alias of smooth. It looks fine when it's horizontal but the minute I put it on an angle, the text looks all fuzzy and gross. I read somewhere that you're supposed to rasterize the text layer first but that just made it really faint as well as fuzzy.

Does anyone have any suggestions?