Used to have L2 cache and enough core memory - now I don't - whahappened?

[faster]

That's pretty much it, what the subject says. But these may be related to other problems. Time, use, and my ignorance have mucked up a few things, but not enough to explain some of the doozies I have these days.

I am attaching my accounting of my troubles, appended to the beginning of the last the Sandra diagnostic report I made, as a roughly 15.5KB text file. I've stripped it of any personal or identifying stuff and added my own comments to items in the report, in [] brackets.

My system by now is a mongrel that started out as an IBM Aptiva 550, and isn't any more.

I use Win98SE, IE6, have an Authentic AMD K-6 3-d processor, and I don't know what else you'd need to know, so ask. Prefer private responses because I don't get back here often.

Oh, keep in mind that I'm rather poor. Buying something for $30 is a major decision. I need to upgrade some things, but must pass over some and choose the others wisely...

Thanks for any help offered.