tips to make pc run faster

hello. I'm in need of tips to make the game & system performance better. Already asked my mate Google a lot, now I'm just wondering what you guys have in mind.

In game (ET) 2 months ago, I had stable 125 fps, but nowadays it goes from 125 to 10, and sometimes 0, every 3 second. And after playing 30 min, everything goes smoothly again.
And sometimes, whole game crash and I'm getting heartbeat error message.

by the way, will an install of Service pack 3 makes it faster? since it has all the service 2 updates etc?

I'm using sp2.

- I have updated drivers.
- Defragged.
- Turned off firewall & anti virus.
- Enabled pnkstrb & pnkstrba in DEP and firewall.
- Turned of unnecessary processes, and cleaned alot room in the /C: (I have 80 % free disk place)
- Running CCleaner daily.
- Googled.
- Cleaned dusk

So any tips of how I can make it better?

stuff I cant do:

- Buy more ram.
- Buy new comp.
- Get skill
- Throw PC out of window.
- Get Linux
- Quit ET.
- Kill myself
- Use the search button

(just so you dont type it ;)


fenks
brutalman


(btw: for those who's commenting that I only have been registered since two hours ago, its because I forgot my pw to the main account. So had to make a new one fast. just so you don't use your strength and power to write a comment about it)


Info about pc:
AMD athlon 64 Processor 3400+
ATI radeon x1050 series
512 ram :SS
Windows XP home edition SP2
antivirusprogramme: avg