Is wallet.dat linked to the blockchain file? Just started using Bitcoin today and since I needed them rather urgently, I hastily bought them and transferred them to my wallet before actually setting up my wallet. The client is downloading the blockchain but it’s taking painfully long… 3 hours and counting.

I was just wondering if I downloaded the blockchain from sourceforge without replacing the wallet.dat file will I get the coins I bought and transferred to said wallet?
From what I know, yes. The wallet and the blockchain data exist independently from one another. The wallet file keeps track of all transactions relevant to itself that appeared in the blockchain, as well as information about the latest block it has seen. If you use an old wallet on a newer blockchain, the client should scan any blocks that came after the waller's last synchronisation and update the information accordingly.

If you need Bitcoins urgently, you might want to use an eWallet until your client synchronises. Those are ready to run in seconds.