>>Im wondering if anyone uses views?

Sometimes

>> Are they as fast as using a stored procedure and passing in the values for the where clause? Are the execution plans for views stored like sp's.

No. SQL Server does not store a Query Plan for a view.

>> I can't find much info on views other than you can treat them like regular tables.

Think if a view as a stored query definition. When you include a view in the FROM clause of a query, SQL Server will take the definition of the view and merge it with your query. The resultant query is then processed like any ad-hoc query.

-Mike