There's nothing magic about AJAX. A call across the network to the database still takes exactly as long as it does with a traditional web application. The increase in speed comes from the fact that an AJAX call can just replace part of the data on the page rather than refreshing the whole page.
The "A" in AJAX stands for asynchronous, which means that when a request is submitted, the user gets back control and can perform other actions while the server is working. When the server returns a response, a callback function is called that uses the information returned to modify the page.
Because of this return of control, the response often seems faster to the user than it really is.
In answer to your question about whether AJAX is the right technology to use: I would answer that in about 98% of the time, the answer is no. Most of the tasks that a web application needs to do can still be best accomplished in the traditional way using the "display a page: submit a form" approach. However, AJAX can be very useful for the other 2 percent of cases. Examples:
* Auto-suggest boxes (User starts typing and a list of suggestions appears)
* Cases where the choices in a second dropdown box are dependent on the choice made in the first dropdown
* Cases where you want the user to be able to drag and drop something
2) Can we set the Attributes into HttpServletRequest in Action , and reading those in JSP.
No, you can't. It's a completely different paradigm. To understand how it works, google "ajax basic tutorial" and try it out.
[ May 23, 2006: Message edited by: Merrill Higginson ]