Re: are views typically any faster/slower than equivilent joins?

> Would my query performance be significantly faster/slower using a View as
> opposed to a prepared query using join?

I missed this part.  Views and prepared queries are not the same time. 
Use of a view still needs to be optimized.

Prepared queries will run the optimization portion on the entire query
including the view segments of it.  Think of a view as a MACRO. 
Depending on the context of what surrounds it, the view may be executed
very differently.

-- 
Rod Taylor 

PGP Key: http://www.rbt.ca/rbtpub.asc