32k isn't much. but yes, you can decrease your swf file size
by moving images outside your swf.. and you can, therefore,
decrease the load time of your main swf by doing just that. but
then you'll need to load your images and that will take some
additional time.
if set-up properly, moving the images outside your swf will
speed initial loading of your swf and, while the user is busy doing
whatever, you can load your images.
but overall the file size of the swf plus the outside images
is likely to be somewhat greater than the size of the swf with all
the images. and the loading time of the swf plus the loading time
of all the images is likely to be somewhat greater than your
original load time.
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