I am so grateful that I've found a forum to get a little help.
I've been wanting to upgrade my computer to make her run faster. She is a COMPAQ Presario 5000, and was bought it in 2000 at a big wholesale convention in Belleville, IL (Blue Star Productions) and can't find myself to part with her so I am wanting to upgrade her instead.
When I first bought her, she had Windows ME installed, and the only major changes I have made is upgrading her to Windows XP Home Edition (Version 2002) Service Pack 1 and also installing a CD burner into her, I believe it's a Plexor or something of that nature, it writes up to 48x. But it uses Nero Ahead burning software.
Also, I saw in another thread that it helps to run the "Belarc" program to see what your computer has on it, ect. so that you may better help me. Here's some of my results.


Operating System System Model
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600) Compaq Compaq PC
System Serial Number: 3333333333333333
Enclosure Type: Mini-Tower
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
600 megahertz Intel Celeron
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
128 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Compaq 06C0h
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: Compaq 686C3 06/02/2000
Drives Memory Modules c,d
19.99 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
11.61 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

CDWRITER IDE5224 [CD-ROM drive]
COMPAQ SC-140S [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

WDC WD200EB-00BHF0 [Hard drive] (20.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMA6K6062485, rev 15.15M15, SMART Status: Healthy 64 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM1' has 64 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

C: (FAT32 on drive 0) 16.09 GB 8.88 GB free
D: (FAT32 on drive 0) 3.90 GB 2.73 GB free


What I am looking to do is maybe make her think faster. Lately, alot of programs I try to open take a long time to load, even Paint! Also, web pages just freeze up becuase they overwhelm her. Also, media is getting larger and larger every day (i.e. resolution of pictures, size of files, ect.) and maybe I would like to increase the amount of information she can remember and also KEEP the information she has on her brain now. I am on a semi-tight budget, maybe $100-150-ish and am looking for some suggestions of what hardware I should invest in, ect.
Also, is upgrading a computer difficult? Would I be able to do it either by myself or find a few tutorials on the internet to guide me? I did install the CD burner by myself and that was semi-easy opening my computer case up and finding the proper connections, ect. Is upgrading a computer similar to that? Any suggestions would be awesome! Thanks for investing your time in reading my post. I appreciate it!

getting more RAM will help alot, but without replacing the motherboard and processor there's not a lot else that be done