Diablo Ii Keeps Freezing Win Xp Pro

I am having trouble running Diablo II on my new laptop.

I am running XP Pro with all the current updates and Serv. Packs.

Diablo Keeps freezing in the middle of games.

I am wondering if it is conflicting with some of my background processes i have running.

I tried terminating some of the processes in the background, but i ended up somehow turning off the sound...

this is pretty annoying, since i dont know what all these cryptic processes are running in the background.

I can screenshot my list of processes and post them if someone wants.

please let me know how i can fix this...

thanks

-J