This is my opinion. I have an Athlon 600 Mhz, with 512 MB RAM. My video card has 32 MB dedicated RAM. I don't seem to be having these problems. It is my guess that the video card is causing most of your problems. Try Mike's suggestion, then if that helps, at the very least upgrade your video card. You don't need the real highend cards, but I would suggest at least 16 MB dedicated RAM.