windows is developed poorly (as we all know). too much memory can be just as bad as too little. i kind of follows a normal curve distribution around 320mb ram. i would not advise anyone to have less than 128 or more than 512mb. when you get too much memory it slows windows down bc there is too much memory for windows to address it all. its like having a 6 story hotel and only using the bottom floor yet you clean all 6 floors every day. (that was kind of a bad example. sorry i cant think of anything better)

anyways, it goes something like that.