I don’t think page speed has anything to do with PR. However make sure your pages do not take ages. The best way to check is to search for a keyword on google and open each of the pages on the home page and check the page load time using the firebug (page speed) then compare with your page. I found 75, 72,even 61 points out of 100 making it on the front page for keyword.
I do not think that it will make huge difference for loading time for most competitive keywords. Hence it stills depends on the kind of objects and images you have used for your website. I mean we cannot compare flash website with simple image website. one with flash will obliviously take more time...
website loading time should be less, there is so many factor of less page load time, some of them. 1. to making search engine friendly. 2. to decrease the bounce rate. 3. help to achieve object or goal.
I don't know if it's just me, but I'd never let a page load that took >7 seconds; search engine placement is irrelevant. Maybe I've just got a short attention span.
Any sites loading time must be not more than 3 -4 seconds otherwise the visitors will tend to jump into another website. Also not good from SEO point of view.
Try to get your site to load as fast as possible. There are many videos you can watch to show you how to improve this if you need help. Also, imo, if I have to wait to open a site I usually will not go there unless I really need to. I am extremely impatient opening websites up and customers are too. Speed will improve your retention/conversion.
webmaster tools-> Site performance says 1.5 sec load time is fast. and check out of your website in your webmaster tools
Everyone loves fast loading websites. So having a faster website is good for search engine and users. And if you want to improve your website speed, try the steps mentioned page speed ad on for firefox