Speed of .load in IE6

There's a very noticeable difference in the speed of loading (using
the .load method) a large chunk of html using .load between version
1.1.3.1 and 1.2.1. Believe it or not, in IE6, 1.1.3.1 is very much
faster. But, of course, IE7 and FF are actually faster in 1.2.1.
<sigh>
Any ideas on this one?