Maxed Out CPU with Live TV

[aanger]

I’m trying to run Live TV through Windows XP Media Center (MCE) on my HP Slimline s7620n desktop but I’m running into very choppy and/or slow video quality on HD channels. I;m fairly certain this is due to my CPU maxing out as it quickly spikes to 100% any time I try to play Live TV. Below are the statistics of my computer:

Model: HP Slimline s7620N (Specs Here)

Processor: Intel Core Solo T1350 (Y) 1.8 GHz

Chipset: ATI Radeon Xpress 200M for Intel Mobile Processors

Monitor: Pioneer 43 “ Plasma Display (Connected from via VGA)

TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950 USB – External USB

Video Codec: nVidia PureVideo – Bronze Version

I do have a video card installed (ATI X1300), but ceased using it as the quality was actually poorer than using the standard video using the integrated 200M chip…

My question is this… considering my CPU speed (1.8 GHZ) and the fact I keep maxing out my processor capacity should I just give up trying to watch Live HD TV through my XP Media Center or is there something I can do to minimize the CPU capacity it takes up. If the answer is no is there any easy way to upgrade my processing speed?

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance…..