[encryption]

The lower the load numbers, it's always going to be better for server and performance. But - and this kinda contradicts what I have said before - server load numbers can end up being more confusing than anything. Regardless of server load, if the sites on the server perform flawlessly and don't appear to bogged down, then those numbers can mean nothing more the number of processes waiting to pass through the CPU and do not necessarily reflect how "loaded" the server is because the sites are performing flawlessly.

The reason I said "normal" load is that in my experience as a webhost, the performance drop when the load hits 1.0 (even on a single processor machine) is marginally insignificant to be worried about the server being "loaded" (other than the number 1.0).