[p4] Deleted branches affecting the Perforce performance

[BAY]

All,
  
  I discussed this subject with P4 helpdesk many times and I wonder if anyone of you can enlight me.
  
  We all create branches and they will get deleted one day. Since P4 is  source control system, the deleted files are still exist in the P4  server. 
  
  Issue: Althought we can configure the P4 client not to display the  deleted files or directories. However, P4 will still scan and as a  result, and this will affect the performance. 
  
  Question: Any of you experience this and come up with a solution? I  asked them for an feature enhancement for "archiving tool or function".  I am running 2004.2 and i believe that is also a problem for newer  version. Comments?
  
  Thanks.
  
  Baz