Aw shucks... <blush> ...
Seems to be some interest in having Win XP/2000 perform as best as possible, want those pulses as fast as possible<grin>. So I did a quick search on CNCZone and didn't find any references to spyware or adware which can slow a system immensely. If you've never run one of the programs to detect & delete such software, please do. We've seen many nice fast systems brought to their knees by these unconscionable intrustions. I think you'll be shocked to see who's tracking your movements about the web. Two excellent freebies are:
www.lavasoft.com adaware personal
www.safer-networking.org spybot
Also many programs install their own 'updaters' or 'quick launchers' that are really unnecessary. Do you really want winzip, realmedia, etc, etc, running, consuming memory & cpu just so they'll start a few milliseconds quicker or can detect an update, or worse yet report back on you so they can target you with more 'offers'.
Hit control-alt-delete then choose Task Manager, note the programs & services running. Then go to
www.windowsstartup.com
and check each one. Take out everything that really isn't necessary.
ps... (if you want more... just ask... long time performance freak here, been overclocking since the early 80's)