Question about browser caching in Flash

I have a Flash file that is linked to 14 xml files using the E4X method. To keep the network activity to a minimum, I have it set up so that the xml files don’t load until the relevant button is clicked (rather than have them all load at the beginning). I’ve been told I could further reduce network activity by using something called browser caching. There seem to be methods called “conditional HTTP” and “304 caching” but I can’t really find a coherent tutorial on how to add this to the code. Any suggestions?