I think the speed is going vary greatly depending on where you are located. For me on AT&T, the 3G speed on the iPad 2 seems to be about the same as it was with the iPad.
Using the Speedtest.net (
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedtest-net-mobile-speed/id300704847?mt=8), mine varies from about 1,400Kbps to 2,200Kbps.
With the iPad 2, Safari is noticeably faster - by at least 3-4x! I don't think this is due to network speed though, it is some change they made in Safari. Probably if you took an iPad to the 4.3 firmware, the difference would not be so great in the browser speed.