Well, a few things here: If you're not a newbie, then most of the things that you need to do to combat your issues should be well within your capabilities.
First of all: Stop using the AOL Software. I always found it to be horrible... not just a slow, clunky, resource-hogging browser, but also a very temperamental one, and it often crashed out on me. A couple of better suggestions would be: Mozilla FireFox and Google Chrome. Both completely outclass the AOL browser in terms of stability, reliability, features and speed.
Secondly: A good, free registry Cleaner is indeed CCleaner. I've had great luck with it in the past, and it remains to be my main - and only - registry cleaner to date, I see no reason to get another one.
I know it's not what you want to hear, but... the best way to solve things like this is to do a clean install of Windows. Operating Systems (Windows XP was pretty bad for this, but Vista and Seven have taken measures to improve this) slow down after time naturally, and you'll find yourself becoming accustomed to the new speed that your computer is running at. A clean install of Windows should solve everything you are having issues with, assuming that the software mishaps aren't the reprocussions of some hardware failings... Of course, this is me assuming that you have access to some install media, which you might not.
If you can (depending on your rig's specs), upgrade to Windows Seven. It's an amazing operating system, to be honest. It's a huge improvement both in reliability and speed over previous Windows Operating Systems, as well as having a much more friendly and easier to use GUI, with a lot more in-depth and useful features on things.
