The CPU's performance is determined in two areas: internal and external.

Internal means within the central processor. The chip's design (CISC or RISC), architecture (i.e.PentiumIII, AMD, or PowerPC), clock speed and memory caches all influence how quickly the CPU can perform tasks.

External refers to the rest of the system.

The amount of RAM, the capacity of the data bus and the motherboard circuitry all influence what any CPU, no matter how powerful, can accomplish. Think of it this way: An expensive race car -- much like a CPU -- may be very powerful. But if the tires are bald, the gas tank is half empty and the roads are narrow and full of curves, what's under the hood tends not to count as much. So make sure your system is a good match for your processor.

There's little you can do to remove built-in roadblocks to CPU performance, but you can always add more RAM, especially if you have only four to eight megabytes. Modern operating systems require at least 128 megabytes to provide adequate performance, and 1 gigabytes is even better. Memory is cheap; double the amount you have now and you'll think you've just bought a new computer.

If you work with graphics, consider adding even more RAM. Your CPU will thank you. An old video adapter can also slow things down. Consider a new video adapter with more built-in memory and a coprocessor that will take the load off your CPU.