Does keyword in domain name help?

I am curious to know if keyword in domain name helps to get better page ranking. I read somewhere before that having keyword in domain name does not help with page ranking.

But today when I googled a keyword which I have a site with (I am still developing the site, have not submitted to any search engine or directory and does not have any link with other sites), ranked in 1st page. It was pleasant surprise. Also Google index my homepage already.
I registered this domain last year but this site is online few 3 to 4 weeks only. Did it help because I had this older domain?

My other site which is fully developed, I submitted to search engines, have Google sitemap submitted, have few back links too, 3-4 week... no luck yet.

Any comments from Gurus?

 

From my experience - keyword in domain/subdomain helps, but it is not the main factor.

 

You might see some preferential treatment from Yahoo or MSN. I have found that Google absolutetly does not care.

 

Having the keyword in the url certainly makes it loads easier to build anchor text rich backlinks.

 

It is a plus but it's the content that counts most.

 

very very low weight.

 

It does certainly. You can see the difference if you run an adword or overture campaign.

Don't expect your surprise #1 position to last for long time. You will suddenly disappear the site from SERPS after it is subjected to sandbox

 

your keywords in domain helps, but there are a lot of other factors that can improve your ranking, like link building.

 

Yeah, i think it helps for MSN serach E. I have one that gets a lot of hits.