Guys,
The puzzle has been solved! Before we even had this new server, the old server was made faster by performing a memory change, as described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274750/.
We did the same change on the new server, as mentioned earlier. What we did not do, however, was the RESTART of the SQL SERVICE. That is why this change did not take an affect.
Once we did that yesterday, the change took affect, and the new server works now just as good as the old server.
Thanks for all the help guys - I learned a lot in the process!!!