Tim, you keep talking about the new G4. Not new any more.
I have a new G5, 1.8 GHz with a broadband connection and It is a fast as any PC I've seen.
Pages load instantly.
I know where you are coming from though because of older Macs we have at school that are MUCH slower than PCs. Not sure if that is all the computers faults or if some of it is due to the network and ESU filter.