When you first install WindowsXP, the software loads in a lot of services by default and many of these services are not needed. Services like Automatic Updates, System Restore and Help and Support are not always needed. If you don't use it, disable it.

To disable services, you must have Administrative Rights and have the ability to access Administrative Tools . Once inside there, go to Services and disable what you don't use. If you're not sure what it does, don't disable it, messing around with Services can ruin an OS!

Here are a few services that you'll want to disable when benchmarking for 3DMark...

Automatic Updates
Error Reporting Service
Event Log
Fast User Switching Compatibility
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Services
Indexing Service
Help and Support
Messenger
Performance Logs and Alerts
Remote Registry
Shell Hardware Detection
System Event Notification
System Restore Service
Task Scheduler
Themes

Please note though, some of the above services may be needed for your everyday use, so if you find your computer acting weird, reenable the above services.

Another small tweak you can do to enhance the performance of your system is going to the Advanced Tab inside your System Properties. From there, click the Settings tabs in the Performance section and select Best Performance .

Let's check out how much performance we gain from those few tweaks.

With the above tweaks we get about another 100 points. Not a huge boost, but 100 points usually separate average scores with good ones.