Hmmm even shouting about it doesn't change the fact that IE2 cannot (by definition) be any faster at loading or rendering pages (let alone running scripts) than the version of IE it's based on. Or that it hasn't seen an update in three years! Wasn't it swallowed into Maxthon anyway? That explains why it hasn't been updated this decade.
As everybody else has said, you are merely testing connection speeds. It is entirely possible for download speeds to vary massively with each test; I could have 1Mbps differences on my 16Mbps line at my old place. As for which browser is the fastest, that's a different story. I don't have a clue which, merely because it changes regularly, and the performance is, in real-world terms, pretty darn close. On the Mac, Chrome is quick, slightly quicker than Safari I'd say. However scrolling performance is generally poor, and Safari integrates slightly better with the operating system. As soon as Chrome performance is fixed, I'll jump back onto it. On Windows, I personally think Chrome is great.
If you're keen to have figures on speeds, the guys at Gawker Media do a regular roundup of browser performance. Take the results with a pinch of salt given the usual caveats about benchmarks, and the fact that Gawker always seems to be a bit pro-Google : http://lifehacker.com/browser-speed-tests/
Hmm does seem abit pro chrome, so does the speedtest.net site though bit chrome didn't come out ontop
