sql server replication: We run some nightly processing, but we wait till some data has replicated.
We query the MSdistribution_status view in the distribution database to
determine if our data has been replicated. The query is:

select *
from distribution.dbo.MSdistribution_status s
join pssi..sysarticles a on a.artid = s.article_id and a.dest_table <>
'sec_price'
where UndelivCmdsInDistDB > 0

The thing is this query takes about 15 mintues to return, and there is no
activity on the databases at that point in time. The distribution database
is about 3 gig when this query runs. Is 15 minutes normal? Is there anyway
to speed this up? It is not a hardware issue, because we are running on a
dual cpu, with 4 gig of memory.

Strange :)
Are you sure there is no contention?
Any blocking visible using sp_who2 'active'?
What about disk contention (Avg Queue length etc)?
Perhaps try using read uncommitted (or nolock) to see if this affects it.
rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com

(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)