I think you might be right. I'm getting an "invalid database id : nsdb0" from 'rp_filter preauth', but no 500 response. When I get home tonight, I'll try to look into what might be causing that error.
I'm using AOLserver 4 from CVS around the time of beta3. Mozilla's repeat requests may also explain why it works in that browser, because if I reload the sitemap about 6 times in IE, it eventually works too.
Thanks for the help.