OK, OK, Pages isn't as bad as I say, but it's still slower than Word 2007 on Windows. On my MBP/W7, If I double click on Word, it is up within 2 seconds, and is ready to type.
Pages, though, bounces on my Dock for at least 5 seconds and then I get the Template dialog. But then, when I launch it again (because it's in memory) its almost instant.
Maybe it has to do with W7 pre-loading apps when starting up Windows, but that's what I've noticed.