Ye the default setting my form has, is the same effect as ?search= , this is normal behaviour, can you provide specifications on your pc? This information will help rejetto. You can be sure its not the template but HFS causing this. HFS has to search through your database recursively, which uses cpu power, I do not feel it, i only have an AMD 2.2ghz 3500+ if you have less, it might effect you.
I can provide instructions to remove search for people with slow computers, though it is a shame to remove such nice feature
i say upgrade those computers