Help with a slow laptop?

[BigTruckDriver]

This thing is about 1 year old and hardly used. I had problems with it freezing up before and took it and got it cleaned out and looked over. I have been using a cheaper laptop and it was 2 times faster than this one. What can I do to speed things up? I dont have any pics , music, or games on it . Thanks Is the memory upgrade all I need to do ? I would like to have pics, games, and music on it . Right now it freezes up just turning it on. Gateway MX6436






Standard Memory 512 MB (removable)
Maximum Memory 2.0 GB
Memory Expansion 2 sockets
Memory Comments PC2700 DDR SDRAM SODIMMs
CPU Type 2.0GHz AMD Sempron 3300+
Model Comments ATI Radeon Xpress 200M Chipset

Memory Upgrade for Gateway MX6436, the Gateway MX6436 takes the PC2700 DDR SDRAM SODIMMs Memory Type, and comes installed with 512 MB (removable) of Memory. You can upgrade your Gateway MX6436 to up to a maximum of 2.0 GB Memory, the system has 2 sockets to install Memory, already with 512 MB (removable) standard Memory installed. For best system performance use the maximum amount of allowed Memory per slot for your system.
Choose the following Memory Upgrade for Gateway MX6436.