WP 3.0 is slower than WP 2.9.2 overall. But take into account all the new features added. You can’t add more things and expect to have same performance level. There is no software (for web or desktop) that can be faster with more features added. If you don’t need new things added by WP 3.0, than don’t use it, but saying that WP 3.0 is slower, is not the same thing as saying that WP 3.0 is actually better that WP 2.9.2, and it is much better.

I am writing conclusion article for the tests that will weight in on the speed and features and, there is no contest: WP 3.0 is better.

Take the “Number of SQL queries” post. You conclude that WordPress 3 is better, but I would refute that. WordPress 3 does have less queries on pages, which are visited rarely (Dashboard, Post Edit), but it has over 10 more queries the number 1 most important page “Post”. So in the real world, I would say that this would reduce overall performance of your wordpress site. The comment page does have less queries, which might make up for it, but I doubt it.

Overall from looking at your post, I would assume wordpress 3 would make for a slower site. This is unfortunate.

For hotlink you should see hotlink image, but images are not subject of hotlink restrictions on dev4press, maybe it’s some problem with Google Reader, I had some problems with it in the last few days.