In this work we address the issue of efficient processing of range queries in DHT-based P2P data networks. The novelty of the proposed approach lies on architectures, algorithms, and mechanisms for identifying and appropriately exploiting powerful nodes in such networks. The existence of such nodes has been well documented in the literature and plays a key role in the architecture of most successful real-world P2P applications. However, till now, this heterogeneity has not been taken into account when architecting solutions for complex query processing, especially in DHT networks. With this work we attempt to fill this gap for optimizing the processing of range queries. Significant performance improvements are achieved due to (i) ensuring a much smaller hop count performance for range queries, and (ii) avoiding the dangers and inefficiencies of relying for range query processing on weak nodes, with respect to processing, storage, and communication capacities, and with intermittent connectivity. We present detailed experimental results validating our performance claims.