Column ordering

I've been told that VarChar fields should go at the end of your table as they are the slowest fields to search on. I have a couple of questions regarding the best way to order my columns.

1. If I have a multiple-field index, is there any benefit in having the order of the fields in the table the same as the order in the index? e.g. Table: fld1, fld2, fld3, fld4, fld5 Index: fld3, fld4
2. Is it true that there is a small performance gain in putting varchar fields at the end of the table. If I do a lot of searching on varchar flds does it make a difference where I put them? Would it help to put them near the front of the table in this case?

Thanks for your advice?

-- 
John Parrott
Elysium Financial Systems
spo_at_interlog.com
http://www.interlog.com/~spo