Server load?

I've been working with MySQL for a while now, but I've noticed it can be slow at times and most websites with dynamic content tend to be slow if there are a lot of users online. I've also noticed how on static websites things generally load more quickly. Static pages are, however, restricting, and this brings me to my question:

Would getting data from a combination of MySQL and text files put less strain on the server than just MySQL?

There are some little things which some people like to put into databases--the current users online, for example--which just seem silly to me and seem like they would put more strain on the server than just looking through a text file.

>>10
I didn't mess with Oracle much, but I'm currently working on a PHP-based portal. The main page makes well over a hundred queries, and is served in 0.25 seconds. I once thought it was insane and it was making the portal slow, so I worked on a hack to save 15 queries. It was then served in 0.24 seconds.