Data Insertion Too Too Slow...

Hi,

Env is ms sql server 2000.

ddl:
create table srchPool(tid int primary key, taid int, s tynyint, uid
tynyint);
-- and sql server automatically creates a clustered index for the pk

dml:
insert into srchPool(taid,s,uid)
select article_id, 99, 1484
from targetTBL
where article_content LIKE '% presentation %';

insert into srchPool(taid,s,uid)
select article_id, 55, 1484
from targetTBL
where article_content LIKE '% demonstration %';
-- a few more similar queries ...

The above insertion query TOOK about 2000ms to execute, too too slow,
would be much faster if I insert the data sets into a temp tbl like

select article_id, 99, 1484 into #srchPool(taid,s,uid)
from targetTBL
where article_content LIKE '% presentation %';

-- once its use is finished and drop it

?

Many thanks.