This would be a good choice especially if you can only run an older version of Aperture. Highly recommend you take a look at it. It'll give you the cataloging capability you need plus the ability to streamline your exports. It's non-destructive editing as well and you won't need another program. Pretty close to 100% of what you need to do is available in LR.
Storage is another issue entirely. RAW files are large and the transfer speed of whatever you have them is a gating factor. An external USB drive will suffice but you'll start beating your head on a wall fairly soon.
I don't know if this has any bearing on what you were looking for in terms of answers, but this is my setup.
I have a drive box from MacGurus that is holding 6 1TB drives and two SATA cards. The drives are split in two 3TB RAID arrays, one for originals and one of the backup of the originals.
On the Originals array, there are folders named sequentially like this: RAW_xxxx_YYMMDD. xxxx started at 0001. Each folder holds 4GB and is dated on its creation, not modification. The 4GB limit allows for easy DVD backup.
When I'm done shooting, depending not the number of cards I've filled, I'll either copy the card contents to the Originals array and then import into LR or just import into LR directly and have it place the files into the correct folders.
In my LR catalog, I have separate sections for client work and personal work. Client work is organized by session IDs that are generated from another piece of software. Personal work is split into several sections. I usually go a full calendar year on each catalog which puts about 100k (give or take) images in the catalog. From my personal experience, LR starts to slow dramatically as you approach the 6 figure mark.
Sometime next year, I'll be buying another 6TB box. I'll move my Originals array to that box and reformat the old one to be a full 6TB to be the new backup array.
I also have some Automator scripts set up to help streamline other aspects of the workflow. For example, exporting from LR and uploading to my lab.
Hope that wasn't too much info or unclear. Sometimes I consider giving it all up and going back to filing slides and negatives. It was so much easier...