403591 A Few Magento tweaks

We have a Magento store that needs some final tweaks before the site goes live. We are running Magento version 1.4.0.1 We have the following issues : 1) Improved Magento Speed The site is on a clustered server environment. The speed of the site is extremely slow. The servers are brand new, 16 gigs of RAM but the speed is slow. We need to speed up the site so it is as fast as this site : [login to view URL] If we can get the speed up to the same speed as this site that would be great. 2) Our "Refer A Friend" extension from AheadWorks not working. 3) "Whats New" and "On Sale" are under featured and should show whatever products are specified to be on sale or new within the date range specified for the product. Instead of adding the products to separate categories that are labeled "What's New" and "On Sale", when those attributes are set in the product admin the product should automatically populate a menu item that displays them.