Video load/playback lags

Hi all. My problem began about a month or so ago. At least that's when I've started to notice it. When I load and playback videos online, it's really slow and it's like the video is still buffering or skipping. Sometimes the sound will continue playing, but the images don't follow. I try to let the video fully load before watching, but it doesn't help and it bothers me because I'm not used to watching videos like that. It feels like I'm using dial-up again by doing that. But I'm using a Road Runner cable connection and for the most part sites will load pretty quick other than the videos.

A few times it kind of affects videos that I'm playing through GomPlayer or any player offline too, but I always think that's because my computer is slowing down. But it's rare, so that doesn't bother me. I've played high quality videos and some more than 1gb with no problem. I've done virus and malware scans and according to the person who helped me over in the malware forum, I'm clear now for all of that. So I'm at a lost as to why streaming videos stopped playing straight. I'm afraid to do anymore to my laptop since I'm not that good with computers, so any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.


Here's what I'm working with.
Acer Aspire 5102WLMi
AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology TL50 (1.6 GHz, 512KB L2 cache)
15.4" WXGA wide CrystalBrite TFT LCD
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
120GB 4200rpm PATA HDD
1GB DDR2
802.11b/g wireless LAN
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition