According to the PHP documentation:
The overload () function allows overloading the call of properties and methods for the class specified by the class_name.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.overload.php
But what does this mean? Does this mean that I can perform proper overloading in this class (e.g. Java overloading)?
This basically allows magic access methods such as __get(), __set()etc.
__get()
__set()
Since PHP5 it is no longer needed and is enabled by default. In fact, you cannot disable it; -)