Surplus memory slower?

[Carter64]

I have a dual-boot Linux 64 bit and XP 32 bit. I know the 32 bit can only use 3 and a bit of my 8gb ram, whereas the 64 can use it all.
XP seems to run excruciatingly slow. As slow as on a less well specced netbook I have.
I'm wondering if there's a disadvantage to having 8gb in terms of speed on a 32bit OS? I also have a dual core CPU and the ram is set to dual channel.

 

[WillW]

Having too much ram won't affect it.

Look to other reasons why XP is being slow - clear temp files, unnecessary startup programs etc.

 

[amjad175]

Don't forget motherboard chipset drivers, XP even with SP3 is very old will not have all the drivers built in. This could be one of the bottlenecks.

You're also better off downloading drivers from the manufactures site rather than Microsoft update, they're likely to be more recent.

 

[Carter64]

Thanks guys, I'll look at those.