I bit the bullet! The graphics card in my old desktop computer (7 years old) bit the dust. A new card wouldn't work. So got a new desktop case, motherboard, and used the new graphics card. Got the Win 7 64bit OS. Also a multi-gigabyte solid state HD and a terabyte+ regular hard drive. Jumped from XP Pro to Win 7 Ultimate. Glad for the new hardware and OS.
Then I upgraded my old smart phone (Palm Pre) to a new iPhone 5S for 4G speed and mobile hot spot. Everything runs faster. I'm happy that I spent the bucks to do the upgrades.