Final answer:
Statement 3 is false because virtual memory is slower than physical memory, as it uses disk space for data not currently in RAM, causing potential performance issues.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement about virtual memory that is not true is option 3: Virtual memory is always faster than physical memory. Virtual memory allows a computer to compensate for shortages of physical memory by temporarily transferring pages of data from random access memory to disk storage. This process enables a computer to run large applications or multiple applications simultaneously beyond the constraints of physical memory.
However, virtual memory relies on hard drive space, and accessing data from the hard drive is significantly slower than accessing data from RAM. Thus, while virtual memory does allow programs to use more memory than physically available (option 1) and helps with efficient memory management and multitasking (option 4), it does not inherently improve the performance of the system by reducing the need for disk I/O (option 2). In fact, heavy reliance on virtual memory can lead to increased disk I/O, which may slow down system performance due to the slower speed of the hard drive compared to RAM.