If the server seems to be running okay and the swap usage is minor, are high server loads a bad thing?

I have seem TOP output load averages over 2.0 several times, quite a few over 1.0 and most 0.5 or higher.

CPU usages at 296% max 5 minute according to mrtg. Load averages 5-minute max is 104 (assume thats 1.04) and average is 57 (0.57) in mrtg.

jsut wondering if I need to be worried or not. Also, 11 days up without a problem.

btw, I am runing spamassassin, clam av, mrtg and apf

What's your CPU? Those numbers are not bad, depending on how busy your site is.

Its a Celeron 1.7 with 512MB RAM and the site puts out about 100-150gb traffic a month (based on my previous server stats) 10 milion hits and 3-3.5 million pages every month

Greetings:

Our typical server load is under 0.50 with approximately 150 processes running give or take 25.

Thank you.