Hi Naomi,
>There should not be difference in performance, IMHO, but I would always prefer JOIN syntax over WHERE syntax for better readability.
>
>Also JOIN and WHERE behave differently, JOIN happens first, then WHERE.

Nope. Filtering normally comes first to speed up by reducing set size (usually the where clause) and then the join-operation.
If there is a filter in the join condition SOMETIMES this is also executed during the first step (depends on the smarts of the engine).

regards
thomas