Wing Commander Fowler,
Open up the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del), go to the processes tab and see if there are any programs running that you don't need. To disable many of these you need to go to the Services management app under Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. From here you can disable anything you don't need. While you're at it, you should disable the Messenger (not MSN Messenger) service for added security. I know iTunes installs the ipod service, even if you don't have an iPod, which uses a couple MB of memory.
Running AdAware and Spybot might help too as a big reason for slow Windows computers are malware, trojans and other annoying programs. A thorough scan with an anti-virus program like Trend Micro's online House call may turn up something as well.
goates