WAL ****pping with archive_timeout & pg_switch_xlog()

I have a question if it is possible that having archive_timeout set up
it will behave like pg_switch_xlog() in the term of non creating new
WAL when there are no changes in the database.

archive_timeout is used for WAL ****pping to standby server in my case
(are there any other reasons?), but WAL is switched by the timeout
even if there are no changes on the server. pg_switch_xlog() is more
intelligent in this manner.
My case is that there are periods of time with no writes to database -
but the logs are continuously ****pped. I would like to save some
resources if it's possible to change the default behavior.

I'm using PG 8.3.1

                            Thanks
                                     Wojtek Strzalka