There's a nice jump up in performance from a stage I 96 to a 103 with performance cams. Since you'll have to take your heads off to install the 103 kit, you might as will bump your compression just a bit. Deck the heads .015, and use a .030 head gasket and you should wind up at 10.2 or so static compression. At that point, you open the door to a lot of performance cams that will keep you grinning every time you twist the throttle. Woods 6 or 555 at that compression would be a good fit in a 103.

If you're going to use SE255 cams, just slap them in your 96, tune it and go riding.

 

It all depends on how much you are willing to spend. You can buy horsepower.
But don't forget you will also need compression releases ($250 plus labor), a better starter ($350 plus labor) and a dyno tune ($400) (at least once)