Which OS would have the best performance on this computer?

Hi,

I'm thinking about which OS should I install on this computer to get the best performance possible.
Currently there's no budget to upgrade it. (It'd require a major upgrade including motherboard, CPU, RAM etc.)


I own a Windows XP and Windows 7 license so these are what I can choose from.

I know XP is outdated. I Personally I prefer Windows 7 (I'm running it on my other computer) on this computer, the performance is just not decent. It's generally slow even though I do regular maintenance on it. (Defrag, junk cleaning etc. I'm very careful about registry cleaning though as it *could* done some damage so I don't do that)

So the question is:
Which OS is better for this computer? XP or 7?

Should I install XP or should I try to further optimize Windows 7 to run better on this computer? If so how?

System details:
Motherboard: Asus M2V
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Single core, original Athlon series)
RAM: 2 GB DDR2
GPU: NVIDIA 9400GT
HDD: 200GB SATA

Thanks!

An SSD upgrade seems interesting but currently the owner can't afford upgrades.

What should we do until that?

Is it reasonable to run Windows 7 on it or should we return to XP on this computer?

Take a look at this tutorial, and try anything you can that costs $0.
Optimize Windows 7
I've found disabling visual options as in steps #4 and #5 can make a noticeable difference on older hardware.
A lot of it may depend on what programs are being run...

This computer is used as a secondary home computer so mostly Internet browsing, listening to music, watching videos, chatting, and most importantly Office work. Occassionally playing Sims 3, it runs OK on this computer.

The problem is that Windows 7 runs generally slow on it, freezes a lot etc. I'm thinking of temporary returning to XP but I'll try these optimizations tips too!


Thanks for your replies to everyone!

My laptop (Dell Latitude D820) was built for XP and Vista capable as per the little sticker that's still on the bottom, but I have 7 home premium running with only 1 GB RAM and only 55GB storage space. I keep my rig pretty clutter free and only have what I consider "essential programs" for security and work, but she runs just fine, no lags, no crashes, no virus (thanks to this forums)

Depending on what you are planing to do with it, you may be fine with 7, but i'll leave that with the gurus here.