I found this quote in the Civ3 FAQ's part 4. Could someone explain it to me? I think I've seen the option for accelerated production in the game preferences. Do many people use it, and why?

"With accelerated production, if you play at chieftain, then the AI will be building/growing at the normal human's pace (without accelerated production, or what your used to playing in previous patches), but the human would be building/growing at a pace higher than Deity. Thanx, Bamspeedy (and thanx to TF for pointing this out to me)"

AP, IIRC, doubles the growth/build rate of both the human and the AI's. Essentially, it just greatly speeds up the game. A few people use it just to cut down on the time it takes to play.

Does it accelerate the year date as well?

no it just accelerates both the AI and human production im currently playing a game with this option on warlord. i kind of like it because usually on this low of a level i get all the wonders but with the accelerated production the AI gets some wonders to.

Actually, it decreases the number of shields/food/commerce required to do everything (by half I believe). Your production doesn't change, you just get the results faster because they are cheaper.