Internet explorer running very slow

Hello. I have a windows XP box that has the latest patches
and updates and so forth. Everything works fine except
when I open IE and try to go to anywhere. The system
resources go to 100% and the home page no matter what it
iswill not fully load. If I hit stop and then try and type
in another address the letters that I type come up very
slowly one at a time. I set the prefs back to the default
settings but this did no good. Any ideas?

redfunguy@yahoo.com