upgraded internet explorer slows computer

I have dell demension 4600 intel pentium 4 ,3.0GHz with HT Technology, 512 MB DDR SDRAM at 400 MHz with 80 GB HD running windows XP Home editionI have updated windows including service pack 2 and run mcafee ccleaner, adaware and spybot twice a week. i downloaded internet explorer7, version 7.0.57006 about 2 weeks ago and have comcast broadband internet. some sites i can get to pretty quickly, but even your site took about 2minutes and 45 seconds to open up and to navigate to each page was about the same amount of time, which i am thinking is the result of some settting on the new explorer i have an RCA modem and a linksys router - wireless G 2.4 GHz that i just bought. my old router with the older version of explorer worked much faster.
As far as i know i have no firewall hooked up although if there is one in windows or something i would no know about it. i even told exploreer to allow popups to get to your site and it was still slow. i am not using the phishing filter either - i could never get on the internet with it as it slowed everything even more. i cannot even upload photos to the kodak gallery site anymore either except by dragging the photos individually which is very time consuming. please help me.

 

thanks! I am going to try the firefox solution first, but i have a feeling, i'll have to go back to IE6. i like some of the features of IE7 such as the zoom because us older folks don't need glasses to read the computer screen using the zoom. i'll let you know the results.

thanks again.

 

i unistalled IE7, but not totally right. Then computer updated, downloading security update for office(KB924424), update outlook(KB913807), update outlook junk email filter(KB923095), security update for power point(KB923091), security updatefor office(KB923272),security update for office(KB914455),Update for office(KB923097), security update for publisher(KB894542), security update for EXcel(KB923088), update for office(KB907417),Security update for word(KB923094,Office OTKLOADR(KB907417). Lose all sound whenever i use the internet. Uninstalled all but OTKLOADR, and used generic host process fix. Worked. Then it installed again, used fix and it works sometimes. if i run the fix and reboot it will work for awhile,then loses it again. do i have to unistall again? HELP!!!!!