Performance question

In turning XML data into an HTML table, each table row is given an alternate
color.  The report under test has 2283 rows.  During my attempt to optimize the
XSLT code, I am finding some interesting numbers.  If I use the start_row2
template below, the time to convert is 9.4 seconds.  The same report using the
start_row3 template, runs in 4.2 seconds!
My question is 2 fold:
Which of the pieces in start_row2 is the time consumer? (hard coding the colors
instead of variables made no difference)
and
Is there a better approach?

I am using the latest XT version.
Thanks in advance,
Larry Mason

  <xsl:template name="start_row2">
    <xsl:param-variable name="depth">2</xsl:param-variable>
          <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="$depth mod 2">
              <TR bgcolor="{$my_stripe_even}"/>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
              <TR bgcolor="{$my_stripe_odd}"/>
            </xsl:otherwise>
          </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template name="start_row3">
    <xsl:param-variable name="depth">2</xsl:param-variable>
          <TR/>
  </xsl:template>



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