maxing the ram is the best thing you can do and it will show a difference, not night and day though, but enough to make you content.

 

Extra RAM will not hurt at all.

Try also scanning for malware using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Spybot S&D, among others. A good AV program like Avast (free) or NOD32 (paid) also works wonders.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, guys! I'll start with the anti-malware and see where to go from there.

I ask about the ram because i know that at *some* point, extra ram becomes kinda pointless. I just don't know what that point is

 

That point would be 2GB for XP, and 4GB for newer OSes, assuming they are used for general-purpose tasks like the ones you mentioned.

 

No malware found. Looks like I'll be buyign some ram this weekend ^^

 

Defragment your hard drive?

 

also done; i do that often enough, i think. on the range of once per month