[worth upgrading 5 yr old system]

Ebay is a great place to get used Computer stuff. I got my friend a 3ghz CPU 512mb RAM system with good video card for $250. When technology gets older prices drop.

[Uninstall Internet Explorer 7]

I have found that Firefox is a much better browser than IE. There is a solution to Firefox notr being able to view certain web sites. Download the IEtab add-on for Firefox. It uses IE to view a page but within a Firefox tab. It is very fast and you can still run other tabs on Firefox.

[firefox or operah]

As you can probably tell from my avatar I would recommend sticking with Firefox. I have tried Opera, IE, and a couple of others and I think Firefox is much better. It is extremely customizable, fast, easy to use, and secure. It is definitely the fastest browser I have tried if you use the right add-ons.