You've got Win ME, that's part of the problem right there. The extra bells and whistles it comes with can slow down your system. Try running scandisk and disk defrag.
We need more info to help you further.
Allocate the amount of virtual memory to double that of your physical memory. Remove all unnessary stuff from your system then run a good defrag or with Norton Speed Disk if you have it.
Another thing to try would be to get rid of stuff running in the background like that autobackup routine I've heard so much about.