lately my laptop peformance Win xp Prof has been a bit sluggish......takes a while to get on sites, open files, etc etc read and compose email......and I have cable too Arggggg!

is there a way to do some kind maintenace and get it up to speed so it will perform faster like it used to.....like clean out things... I used to be able to just click away and bang bang bang!!!!!or maybe shut off prog working in the back ground or whatever? Im no PC Geru But I NEED MORE SPEED like it used to be!!!!
Any help or advice appreciated....

Thanx