SLOWING DRAGGING AUDIO

Hello, I am yet another newbee, can anyone help?, I have been using AA 1.0, for about six months, and until recently everything has been working ok,  as time has gone on I find that, record, playback, copy,  saving files etc,  have slowed down, the longer the file the worse it gets, the finished item is slow and breaks up on play back,
I have done the usual computer maintenence checks,  even reinstalled AA to a bigger drive, changed the temp folders etc,
my system is XP professional,  I was using Cool Edit on this computer previous without any problems, 

Thanks  for your time

Bertie

....as time has gone on I find that, record, playback, copy,  saving files etc,  have slowed down, the longer the file the worse it gets, the finished item is slow and breaks up on play back,

When you say 'slow' do you mean the playback is slow, as in slowed down, or just that load or save times are slow?

Without any more information, I think the very first thing I would do is defragment the HDD/s.

aside from defragmenting, it sounds like it could be some general computer problem.  if it happens with other programs too, something could be taking up cpu time:  other system enhancement programs or a virus.  viruses have a tendency to get worse over time.  if it's just system enhancement programs, they tend to make the system worse as you add more and more of them.
By system enhancement programs I mean any programs that run automatically as you run your computer.  This could be instant messangers, antivirus programs, whatever.  Even adding more and more FONTS might start to slow down a computer, but I'm not absolutely certain of this. 

These are just some hunches I have.  I can't be sure since I'm not there to examine your computer.