"but I also have problems routinely . . . not sure why all . . . I'm on 24/7"
The first things I think of are memory and HDD utilization/configuration.
Max out your system Ram, if you can, and try to get all the same high quality brand (same batch if possible). Don't do any overclocking until you're sure the system is running stable, then increment slowly.
Add a second HDD if you don't already have one. Configure a small partition at the front of the second drive, large enough for a system swap file and a little more. Configure XP so that there is only one swap file and locate it on that partition. (The XP default is to put a swap file in every partition.) This should result in a more robust system without as many problems. The second HDD uses a different channel to read/write and can do so simultaneously while read/writes occur on the 1st HDD. By limiting the swap partition to only the swap file, there is no fragmentation of it, which is the normal scenario and tends to really slow down systems over time - especially if one does not defrag the hard drives very often.
Routine maintenance should include deleting temp files, uninstalling or deleting stuff no longer needed and defragging the hard drives - all at regular intervals.
Hope that helps.
I have 5 or so HD's tons of GIGABYTES. A RAID setup etc.
Might setup a 4Gig Flash drive as you suggest. I haven't partitioned any of my HD's.
Thanks much.
RAM is maxed at 1 Gig because techs have been unable to get the other Gig slot to work for some reason.