The number one thing that I would suggest would be to install XP if you have the money and your computer has the resources (which it should). This will vastly improve stability and performance. Then you can upgrade the RAM, and it will have a much larger impact on the computer's performance... And make sure like Murphys and Other_One said, you want to run msconfig and turn off a lot of that crap that starts up with the computer. Usually, you don't need 75% of that stuff and it just bogs down your system...