Install and setup

1. Use Synaptic or Apt in terminal (sudo apt-get install) to install the following packages:
compiz, libdecoration0-dev, compizconfig-settings-manager, compiz-plugins
Do not bother to install install the fusion-icon package, Compiz Fusion Icon doesn’t work anymore in Mate 1.6

2. To set-up compiz to start automatically at login go to Start-up Applications (from Control Centre and add a new entire (click add) and write "Compiz" to name and enter "compiz --replace" in the command field (without the quotes).
For  manually start use command "compiz --replace" in terminal.

3. Replace "marco" with "compiz" windowmanager to lower the CPU usage. Do this with dconf Editor (install it first). Navigate to org > mate > desktop > session > required-components > windowmanager, click on “marco” and modify it.
You can use also next command in terminal:
sudo gsettings set org.mate.desktop.session.required-components windowmanager compiz

4. Open CompizConfig Settings Manager and be sure you ticked “Window Decoration”, “Move Window”and any other functions you may find useful.

5. Go to General section, check "Gnome Compatibility", open it and  go to Commands tab and replace (in all 3 command lines) the word "gnome" with 'mate". Go back and test this: press Prt Sc key.  Now you can take a dessktop screenshot.

Activating composition you may experience some freezing or resets of the X system due to the video card. Tray to change your video driver.

UPDATE 1: Works better for me to use the nouveau driver instead of nvidia driver. I do not know why the use of nvidia driver drastically increase the GPU temperature.

PS: What is Compiz without Emerald? Check this tutorial:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1080

UPDATE 2: Other settings

First i want to make a observation here. I noticed that some initial values in CCSM settings (like animations time) are wrong or blank. When you have a problem with a plug-in, go to its settings and in right side you have that arrow for reset to default value. Try default values and than try yours.

In General section tick "Composite" and "OpenGL".

Also in General section at "General Option" in "Desktop Size" tab you must set the number of horizontal and vertical virtual size of your desktop in order to use Desktop plug-ins like "Desktop Cube", "Desktop Wall", "Expo", "Rotate Cube" and others.

it's a small difference and a confusion between terms used here. Number of desktops aka "workspaces" can be set to 1 . Virtual horizontal and vertical size give number of "viewports" and must be more than one. Usually i use 2 for horizontal, 1 for vertical, 1 for desktops but for "Cube" it's better to use 4 horizontal.

And if you are here take a look to "Key bindings" tab, maybe you want to change some keyboard shortcuts.

Back to Desktop section. I like to use "Expo" plug-in. This works good with "Desktop Wal"

For "Expo"in "Bindings" tab i set Expo Corner/Edge to TopRight. In "Behaviour"  i changed duration to 0.800 and in "Aparence" i set a "mint" colour for glow.

For "Desktop Wall" in "Viewport Switching" tab, i changed Wall Sliding Duration to 1.800 (much better). In "Edge Flipping" tab i use just Edge Filp Move (intitial i ticked also Edge Flip Pointer, but this became annoying after a while).

For "Cube" fans i have an advice: don`t use "3D Windows" efect! This mess all. But you can use another nice efect: "Cube Reflection and Deformation".  Check in "Desktop Cube" in "Behaviour" tab the animations time! Set in "Aparence" tab an image for skydome.

I hope this advice will help you.

Cheers!