Load Movie Delay

I have a Flash movie, that contains and empty movie clip on its stage. There are a few buttons that when clicked, call a swf movie, into the empty movie clip of the main movie. This is using the loadmovie AS.

on(release) {
loadMovie(“ch3.swf”,“theClip”);
}

It works great and has really reduced my file size, but there is a delay in loading the external swf. I added a preloader to have something playing while it loads, but the preloader does not show up and I still have a moment on DSL where nothing is happening. (this is as long as 10 seconds on dialup).

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? I’d really appreciatte some help.

Thanks!
Amelia