IE8 slow page load, errors, lmtd connectivity

Dell Dimension 8200 XP SP3 w/ 1Gig memory is having IE8 problems. Many web pages load extremely slow or give page errors or sometimes result in windows displaying diagnose connectivity errors (with no errors). Other PC's on the home network don't have this problem so it is related to this PC. The PC blazes through other applications and runs various on-line bandwidth speed tests at 3M+ download-just loads pages slowly, missing images, etc. While the pages are slowly loading CPU and network utilization are both low and now process seems to be taking any CPU time.

I've tried:

1) Removing and reinstalling Eset AV / Firewall. No difference when it's there or not
2) Remove and reinstall flash and Java
3) Clean all temp files, cache, etc.
4) Firefox as a browser has the same problems
5) Malwarebyte scan with 4 adwares removed
6) TCPIP optimize to reset MTU

Any help would be appreciated.