Right click on My Computer on the desktop.
Left click on Properties.
You are now in System Properties.
Click the Performance tab.
What percentage of System Resources do you have?
Here is a page that will help you weed out uneccessary programs that you have running.
http://beemerworld.com/tips/resourcewasters.htm
This page will show you how to use the System Configuration utility. (msconfig)
Let us know if you need help with what programs to shutdown in msconfig.
Cheers!