Apire 1410, can it be faster?

Hello all, I just got this netbook which is a serious downgrade from my previous book in terms of power. I was wondering what I could do to optimize it to run at peak levels.

I've reformatted it to start from fresh and checked what runs at start up to make sure there's not too much running. It's quite sluggish, on things I feel it shouldn't. I have a good internet connection, and other computers run better, this one however runs sluggish simply browsing non-intensive sites and more intensive alike.

I have AVG, but I was wondering if there was a less intensive free Anti-virus that works just as well. Along with that software query, I tried Songbird and I found it very crumby, even iTunes runs better. Is the only other option for a less intensive music player Winamp? And, which is less intensive google Chrome or Firefox?

So I'm just wondering what are some general things to improve the computer's speed. Here are the specs

Acer Aspire netbook 1410-2954
Win 7 64bit
Intel celeron 743 (1.3ghz)
2GB RAM

Thanks a lot!

 

Go up to 4GB+ ram, get a SSD drive, upgrade the wireless card to Intel 5300 card.

 

I use Avast free AV and Opera browse.