looking for information on "Archived" files

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

have been searching the microsoft database trying to find out what
"Archived" files are and how they get there, but every search i tried,
leads me nowhere...
my problem is that when i was scanning my computer in Ad-Aware, i noticed a
site name that i had been to a few days before, then i did a search on my C:
drive for that name and it listed 60 files and folders, all blank, and all
compressed in the Archives.... then as i tried to delete each one, it would
re-appear at the bottom of the list again... and presumably there are
dozens of other such files in there too, but haven't searched for others as
haven't been able to catch another site name during the scan...
does this make any sense..... i would just like some idea of what is making
this happen, and how i could stop all the unnecessary folders sitting around
in my computer ...
any help would be greatly appreciated..... thanx in advance.....