Preload from xml

Hey dudes,
I’m reading in a list of images from an xml document, and I want to preload them. At the moment I’m just loading them one at a time in a movieClip with _visible = false. When one finishes, the next one starts, and when they have all finished, the rest of the movie plays. While this works, it’s pretty slow and hacky. Not that I want any of you to type out a million lines of code, but any general ideas for a better solution? Thanks!