True, but only to an extend.
Most anti virus programs use virus signature scanning to detect viruses on your computer. This means that the anti virus program has a list of known virus signatures in it's database, and checks this database each time your PC opens or access any file. Because it can take a few milliseconds to screen every file through a list of many thousands of virus signatures, it is common for an anti virus program to make your computer run a little slower after installation. One measure the effectiveness of an anti virus program is how much it does, or does not slow down a computer after installation.