Hi brickboo,
DSL will be faster than dial-up.
Cable or Broadband , well be even faster.
I used to have just dial-up , and selling on eBay and up-loading pic`s was a pain , but like you , my old iMac was not able to handle broadband speed.
I bought a new Mac , and now have broadband service . and it screams as far as speed.
I had to down load a 350 + MB download and thought it would take a few hours , instead it was a few minutes !!
However , they are charging way to much for the service , I know I`m cheap !!
But hey , all your doing is tapping into a server , I mean you are not really seeing anything tangible , it is just a service.
I would find it very hard to go back to dial up !!
Good luck !
Gary