I found a way to speed up iPhoto a bit ... I currently have 653 pictures in my photo library. I have the "Film Rolls" checkbox selected in order to keep track of when my pictures were taken. I have a 700 mhz flat screen iMac and normally, iPhoto would take about 30 seconds to open. So I went through and collapsed each film roll one by one. Now it opens up in a snap. However, I can no longer see any of my photos.
But I found that if I hold Option and expand a single roll, every roll in the library opens up with about half a second of load time. This also works to collapse all rolls.
[Editor's note: I've got about 1,300 images stored in one library on a G4/733, and opening iPhoto with all rolls collapsed cut about 15 seconds from the launch time ... nice trick!]
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20021004061050563