This is not for the faint of heart!
There's a little freeware proggie out there called GameXP which can tweak your XP system for better performance by removing unneeded services, background programs, tweak Windows systems, and tweak your video card settings. However, much of its power goes deep into the vastness that is the REGISTRY, and as such, you should not do this unless you're prepared to have to go into Safe Mode and repair it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't do it! Even though GameXP makes a backup of the registry, user beware. For those that feel OK with a program changing registry entries, here's the download:
http://www.theorica.net/download.htm
For securing your desktop, you may also be interested in SafeXP, another freeware proggie.
Drivers
New official 174.16 Nvidia drivers!
Users of Nvidia chipsets in both desktops and laptops may find tweaked / leaked drivers over here:
http://www.tweakforce.com/modules.ph...download&cid=1, under the "XtremeG" set. I have noted good performance increases on a lot of games on my 8800GT. Since this is a third-party bundle, and many times a bundle of beta / leaked beta drivers,
be prepared to have to
reinstall your drivers in Safe Mode!
For users of ATI chipsets in both desktops and laptops, nothing beats
http://www.omegadrivers.net/.
The same warnings apply -- use at your own risk!
Happy gaming!