Direct X 9.0+: Install the latest version of DirectX. Type dxdiag on run box, you will come up with direct x configuration menu. Make sure in video direct draw, direct 3d and AGP are enabled. These are very important to check with directx.

AGP Bus Drivers: If you have a 3D accelerator video card, then you have to double check the latest drivers installed for your motherboard and especially for the AGP bus. These drivers make sure that all communication between the graphics adapter, CPU and memory are done using the most efficient way, for example by enabling full AGP support. If your system is based on an AMD Processor, updating the drivers is of utmost importance

BIOS Settings: Try updating your motherboards flash BIOS. These are available from your motherboards manufacturer website. Do check that your CPU is NOT overclocked. Do not overclock your CPU or video card. Overclocking may cause system instability. Most often overclocking leads to system instability and prone to crashes. Increasing AGP Aperture Size to 128MB in your BIOS may help.

Graphics Detail & Color Depth: If your game crashes when in the middle of the game or when loading then this could be the problem of textures and color depth. Manually set the texture depth or colors to medium quality with 640x480 or 800x600 resolution modes. Many 3D accelerators simply run out of resources when running the game in high resolution. Harddisk defragmentation is yet another option to improve slow/choppy games.

Minimum Hardware Requirements: Make sure you meet the games minimum requirements as endorsed by game vendor. For most games, the hardware required for smooth transition is :

BackGround Resident Programs: It is recommended to disable virus checkers, screen savers, on-line chat programs (such as ICQ), music players (such as Winamp or Media Player) and generally close all background applications during installation and operation of the game.

Free Disk Space: Allow plenty of hard drive space (atleast 500MB) to the game. Insufficient hard disk space could make the games choppy or slow.

Hardware Conflicts: Another problem worth to examine is your hardware conflicts. Either your network card, modem or USB might conflict with your video or sound card. Make sure that no hardware conflicts exist on your PC.

Windows 2000: If your game runs sluggish or still crashes, change your XP to Win 2000. It just might work. For many games still windows 2000 is a remedy because of its stability.