I just discovered that by having a different power scheme in your Power Management Settings, with Intel's SpeedStep setting set in your BIOS, that your laptop will run slower than it's rated speed. I have a laptop and used CPU-Z to check its specs- it was running at 1.6GhZ, but the core was a 2.8GhZ! Geez, what a loss of power! So I read up and discovered that the power scheme needed to be "Always On" or "Home/Office PC".If you're using a laptop with WinXp, download CPU-Z, and see what the speed is, or just make sure your scheme is set to one listed to get the most from your CPU. However, make sure you monitor the temperature and/or use good cooling options.