An application pool is like a pond, if I create 2 application pools, first application pool has 100 fishes and another application pool has 200 fishes, here fish is like an application in application pool. They are managed by worker processes. Best advantage is: if pond number-1 has bad water and cases all fish are effected then there is security of fish in pond number-2. Like this if any application pool is affected by any problem but there is not any effect of this problem in application pool 2 so security improves, and another benefit is that is you provide all the necessary authentication and rights to all applications in a single application pool.

基本上，应用程序池是一种通过进程边界在web服务器中创建区域的方法，并将url集路由到每个这些区域。更多信息请访问:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc735247(WS.10).aspx

假设游泳者在预留给他们的游泳池游泳。如果游泳者游到为他们预留的区域之外会发生什么，整个事情会变得一团糟。类似地，iis使用应用程序池将一个进程与另一个进程分开。

应用程序池是由一个或多个url组成的一组，由一个或一组工作进程提供服务。应用程序池用于分离共享相同配置和应用程序边界的IIS工作进程集。应用程序池用于隔离我们的web应用程序，以获得更好的安全性、可靠性、可用性和性能，并且它们保持运行而不相互影响。

application Pools元素包含IIS上运行的所有应用程序池的配置设置。应用程序池定义了一组一个或多个工作进程，这些进程配置了公共设置，为分配给该应用程序池的一个或多个应用程序提供请求。

由于应用程序池允许一组Web应用程序共享一个或多个配置相似的工作进程，因此它们提供了一种方便的方法，可以将一组Web应用程序与服务器计算机上的其他Web应用程序隔离开来。

进程边界分隔了每个工作进程;因此，一个应用程序池中的应用程序问题不会影响其他应用程序池中的Web站点或应用程序。应用程序池显著提高了Web基础设施的可靠性和可管理性。

我是投票第二高的答案，但如果有人觉得有用的话，我想在这里添加更多的细节。

短版:

IIS runs any website you configure in a process named w3wp.exe. IIS Application pool is feature in IIS which allows each website or a part of it to run under a corresponding w3wp.exe process. So you can run 100 websites all in a single w3wp.exe or 100 different w3wp.exe. E.g. run 3 websites in same application pool(same w3wp.exe) to save memory usage. ,run 2 different websites in two different application pools so that each can run under separate user account(called application pool identity). run a website in one application pool and a subsite 'website/app' under a different application pool.

长版:

每个网站或网站的一部分，都可以在一个应用程序池下运行。您可以使用应用程序池控制网站的一些基本设置。

You would like the website to run under a different w3wp.exe process.Then create a new application pool and assign that to the website. You would like to run the website and all it's code under a different user account(e.g under Admin privileges),you can run do that by changing Application Pool Identity. You would like to run a particular application under .net framework 4.0 or 2.0. You would like to make sure the website in 32 bit mode or have a scheduled recycle of the w3wp.exe process etc.All such things are controlled from iis application pool.