> Whoops, I didn't check the specs before I blurted that out. I mean the
> positive supply pin. Its also an AC ground, which is all the osc caps care
> about.


The positive supply pin (vcc) is NOT an AC ground, unless external
components make it so. If you've got space for the externals, then you can
just as well return the osc caps to the chip ground (vss). Returning them to
VSS through any component (which will have a finite, non-zero impedance)
will always be worse than returning them to VSS directly.