Fenix

I have done a clean install of windowsXP on a P3 550 with 128MB ram. Without any other software installed the machine was using between 105MB and 115MB. that only leaves you about 15MB before your into the swap file. Personal option is 256MB just to do word processing and surf the web anything more and you need 512MB, I personally run with 640MB on my laptop (XP Home) and 1GB on desktop (XP Pro)

One Question I have is did you ever find any spyware programs with spybot or adaware? I like these tools alot, although those two detect/clean almost all spyware they're not 100% I just ran into a problem were they would not remove a malware program install by a supposed legit program. other suggestions for spyware: CWshredder to remove about 35 Cool Web veriants. Highjackthis {already mentioned} to check your registry for changes to you registry [be careful not all changes listed are bad] the program I ran into was called WtoolsA or Searchtoolbar I searched the web for these and found that it had to be manually removed even after adaware and spybot found and cleaned most of it out. the program would come back after a few hours and have to be cleaned again. **Since your Running windows XP just start the machine in Diagnostic mode (MSCONFIG) and see how it functions if it works ok then you have program running that may need some fine tooning or be removed.** Good Luck