I did a search, but didn't find much like this solution... So here goes and it's rather long.

I put my new system together over the weekend, parts as listed:
Foxconn G965 mAtx
Q6600
2gb OCZ PC6400
Foxconn 8600GTS
Antec NeoHE 550w

All of this new hardware went into my Silverstone SG01 mAtx case along a wireless card and extra usb card.

Once i got all of the hardware assembled it was time to install XP pro. The install went fine and when i got to the last screen of adding the users i created two profiles. And so goes XP.

As i start installing the updates and other start up apps XP gets progressively slower and slower and then starts freezing up or snagging at startup and shut down. The apps that load at startup are:
Nvidia manager
Kaspersky AV
APS powershute
Wireless card connection app
Audio apps (speaker icon and Realtek HD audio)

Now I was coming from a P4 511 (that's right) 1gb ram, 6600GT and an ECS VIA chipset mobo - pretty much a slow box, so i was expecting quite an improvement w/ the Q6600. But, the load times were the same which was taking about 1:20-1:30 to load after clicking the user icon at the startup screen. I can't click anything either while it loads because the hour glass is running w/ XP pretty much locked while loading.

So now comes the fun part, installing Zone Alarm. I know ZA was a bit of a problem in the past but i figured it was because of the slow comp. Well after install and restart i click my icon and launch my profile. XP completely stops. You can click, but nothing loads. The cpu is at like 3% but nothing is happening. It's like a zombie.

So, I boot to safe and uninstall ZA. After deletion XP is still running slow at start up. So, in the quest to have a speedy loading XP I scratch it and reinstall XP. After the reinstall, updates and loading software it's still the same. I should add that the other user acct is a bit faster, but still loads slow, 1min+. Now i'm flustered because i've just assembled a new box and it doesn't load any faster than the old one.

I decide to create a new profile... Create the new profile, log off and load the new user profile. BAM! it loads in about 10sec. Now i install ZA in this profile, restart and voila' ZA works just fine and the profile loads in less than 15sec.

I delete the two original profiles, restart and make sure there are no lingering folders/files. Then recreate them (from the newly created profile) and load each one. BAM! they load in no time, probably less than 15sec on avg.

Moral of the story... It may not work for everyone, but might be worth trying... When you install XP just create a temp profile and load most of your software and then create a new profile once everything is loaded; then delete the old temp profile and hopefully you'll see some performance gain in load/shut down times.