Getting Low FPS

[=OF=BigDaddy]

I am not sure how to tell exactually what FPS I am getting while playing. I just can see that I am not getting the same as I was before. It started yesterday afternoon. Suddenly my FPS just dropped and stayed there. I rebooted and power cycled my cable modem and router. Still running bad. I ran my adware and AVG scans. Still low FPS. Today it is still low FPS and I am at a loss as how to fix it. I play at 1024 x 768 resolution. I havent tried changing it to 800 x 600 as of yet, but it played fine where I had it before.

My Laptop Specs Are:
Pentium 4 HT 3.0 ghz
800 Mgz Bus
2 Gigs Of PC2700 400mhz Ram
ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 128mb
Windows XP Pro service pack 3

 

[scubadaveojr]

kick up the ram, and the service pack three might be licking some problems too... that one gave me problems in a lot of other games and design software i use....