IE8 works just fine on 4 different machines in my house.

A lot of times, what causes a browser to bog down is the antivirus app on the machine. They check so many different things these days every time a page is loaded that if the antivirus isn't efficient, it can crush a machine and it appears to be the browser. Of course browsers have their own issues, but antivirus complicates the issues as well.

I use Avant Browser, Firefox and IE8 in that order on all of my laptops. Avant (when setup as needed) I use the most for personal stuff, emails, etc. I love how if I ever need to reset, it remembers every window I had open. Firefox and IE8 does the same thing (IE8 needed a plug-in), but Avant makes rows and columns w/ the tabs, so I can have countless tabs open w/o the need to scroll left and right...just point and click. I've never used Chrome, and my only experience w/ Opera is on my Treo, which is pointless here. I don't know if Avant or my 20 tabs are what seems to slowdown my XP laptop in the garage, but what's a good choice for something new?

Thanks to all for responding. Md I am in the main flow of TW in Dallas.
I went to Google Chrome and I am much happier with that than FF, at
least here.
TW is the fastest in town here. Fios is close, but Verizon is tough too deal with from an administration standpoint.
Again, thanks for all the responses.