hjtdutchman..

You first wrote, "sometime away i joined mcafee security as my original norton service had expired". You then said you installed AVG. Did you completely remove all but one anti-virus? Running more than one at the same time, might be partly contributing to your slowdown. Not being clear, which one you eventually chose, I'm going to include all 3 removal tools. They remove leftover files, which the stand uninstall tend to miss.

Norton/Symantec Removal Tool
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

AVG Remover Tool
http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools

McAfee Consumer Products Removal Tool
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=1033
(If you installed it through Dell there's a link at the bottom of the page)

Regarding Platte:

Please see Marianna's post at the below link, titled "Assuming you have XP" which will give what tools to use, and detailed instructions on how to use them and set them up. If you have a problem, I'm sure she can further assist you.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6132_102-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=311875&messageID=2879584#2879584

It's safe to use more than one spyware tool. Perhaps, someone else will further explain the "whys and hows" of it, as I'm rather short on time at the moment.

Hope this helps..
Carol