Making Windows XP run on 256MB of RAM

With nothing else running, XP runs quite well with 256MB. Thus, I'd wonder what else is running. Grab something like Autoruns from SysInternals and see how many apps/utils/bloatware you have running at startup and prune that back.

You might also make sure you have current video drivers to ensure that start menu "lag" isn't video driver related.

Final note: Turn off that default crayola theme and run it in "Classic" mode. That'll make a huge difference.

there are hacks/registry tweaks for speeding up the speed of menus in Windows XP. My old machine used to run Windows XP on just 256 MB of RAM, and the hack worked pretty well. Mostly, you just have to be patient with it...I would recommend running msconfig and clearing out ALL non-essential startup stuff; also look at the list of services running, and disable ones that you don't need. Google anything in msconfig and services that you are not sure about.

Also try tweaking various graphical effects etc Microsoft has an article: http://www.xpmaximized.com/archives/speed-up-xp-menu-display.html

Here is an article about speeding up the menu display in XP: http://www.xpmaximized.com/archives/speed-up-xp-menu-display.html