Take more time to load than what? I'm not sure what you're trying to compare it to, but needless to say, 100 nodes in an XML file really isn't much at all. Regardless of size, there's no reason not to use Flash's built in XML class when handling XML. Just make sure that whatever you end up using the data for, before you proceed, check that the XML file has finished loading. That can be done by using ActionScript's load event handler.