Opening a large HTML document in Excel - slow

[PJL-2005]

Opening a large HTML document containing a table with 22 columns and 4000
rows takes around 5 minutes on my Dual Xeon 2.8 ghz with 2gb of Ram.
If i resave in Excel HTML format it takes about 20 seconds to re-open.

Is there anyway to improve the load time? I notice that the operation
results in 8.5 million soft page faults.

Excel is obviously converting the standard HTML to its own internal format.
e.g.

<TR class=tableRow>
<TD class=defBgColor colSpan=3> </TD>
<TD noWrap>ABC</TD>
<TD align=right>1.4000</TD>
<TD align=right>1.5750</TD>
<TD>USD</TD>
<TD align=right>0</TD>
<TD align=right>(20,000)</TD>
<TD align=right>(3,150,000)</TD>
<TD align=right>(350,000)</TD>
<TD class=flashHeiglight>(350,000)</TD>
<TD align=right>(1)</TD>
<TD class=flashHeiglight>622,469</TD>
<TD align=right>2</TD>
<TD class=flashHeiglight>739,835</TD>
<TD align=right>2</TD>
<TD class=flashHeiglight>739,835</TD>
<TD align=right>3</TD>
<TD align=right>6,134,840</TD>
<TD align=right>15</TD>
<TD align=right>0</TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD align=right>(46,218)</TD>
<TD align=right>0</TD>
<TD align=right>289</TD></TR>


becomes

<tr height=15 style='height:11.25pt'>
<td colspan=15 height=15 class=xl57 width=1049 style='height:11.25pt;
width:791pt'> </td>
<td class=xl58>ABC</td>
<td class=xl59 width=161 style='width:121pt' x:num>1.4</td>
<td class=xl59 width=70 style='width:53pt' x:num="1.575">1.575</td>
<td class=xl60 width=79 style='width:59pt'>USD</td>
<td class=xl59 width=71 style='width:53pt' x:num>0</td>
<td class=xl61 width=80 style='width:60pt' x:num="-20000">-20,000</td>
<td class=xl61 width=80 style='width:60pt' x:num="-3150000">-3,150,000</td>
<td class=xl61 width=161 style='width:121pt' x:num="-350000">-350,000</td>
<td class=xl62 width=77 style='width:58pt' x:num="-350000">-350,000</td>
<td class=xl59 width=59 style='width:44pt' x:num>-1</td>
<td class=xl62 width=85 style='width:64pt' x:num="622469">622,469</td>
<td class=xl59 width=64 style='width:48pt' x:num>2</td>
<td class=xl62 width=85 style='width:64pt' x:num="739835">739,835</td>
<td class=xl59 width=61 style='width:46pt' x:num>2</td>
<td class=xl62 width=85 style='width:64pt' x:num="739835">739,835</td>
<td class=xl59 width=57 style='width:43pt' x:num>3</td>
<td class=xl61 width=161 style='width:121pt' x:num="6134840">6,134,840</td>
<td class=xl59 width=88 style='width:66pt' x:num>15</td>
<td class=xl59 width=88 style='width:66pt' x:num>0</td>
<td class=xl60> </td>
<td class=xl61 width=61 style='width:46pt' x:num="-46218">-46,218</td>
<td class=xl59 width=55 style='width:41pt' x:num>0</td>
<td class=xl59 width=50 style='width:38pt' x:num>289</td>
<td colspan=42 class=xl24 style='mso-ignore:colspan'> </td>
</tr>

Does anyone have any information about how best to construct the original
HTML such that Excel can re-render in a more efficient manner. Can this
process be controlled in anyway?

Regards
Phil

Using Excel 2003 (11.6355.6408) SP1 on Windows XP Prof v2003 SP1