Comp Specs For Planetside

[Deckhead]

Help! I just bought PS and the framerates sucketh. Maybe it is the framerate. I am not new to Online Gaming, but still DUMB. I run a Dell 8200 P4 2.0gh w/ 256 RAM and a GEforce 4 Video Card. Internet Connection is DSL. I also run Windows XP. (example: I will be following someone, and everything will slow down or pause, then when it smoothes out again, that person will be a mile away) Makes this game very frustrating. Another question is this: I always seem to have 30 something applications running in the background eating up all of my VM. How do I get them not to run, and not to come back when I reboot?

Thanks for any help,

Deckhead