Maximum columns for optimum performance (fwd)

Can anybody comment on this?

--
Peter Eisentraut Sernanders väg 10:115
peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net 75262 Uppsala
http://yi.org/peter-e/ Sweden

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 11:16:48 -0600
From: Jude Weaver <exec(at)shreve(dot)net>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net>
Subject: Maximum columns for optimum performance

One of our tables have 476 columns and only 12 records or rows in it. We are
coding in Java. When we compile and run against this table it is super slow.

Is there a maximum number of columns past which performance suffers? Would we
be better off building several smaller tables with fewer columns instead of
one big table? Does the number of columns in a table affect speed?