XP Freezes Due to Internet???

Hello
I'v Used XP many times switching from OS to OS ...About a few weeks ago I formated my XP drive etc and reinstalled XP for I would say a good month XP ran fine I even had it up for 6 days straight only did a reboot cause of a program I installed that called for it ...I never experienced any problems really ..

But in the past Few days I upgrated My internet ...From Normal ADSL 1200/160 to ADSL 3000/680 ...Ever since then My Computer Constantly Freezes ...and I mean ALWAYS Once every Hour ...I would say YES I am using More bandwidth but then again I have it I usally have a few programs running for example In the Tray Icon I have Norton Anti Virus ...My Sygate Firewall ...Mouse Properties ..and Deernet a IP redirect Program (Sorry if Program is Spelt Wrong Hardly use that) I usally Open IRC and ICQ to chat on ...Besides that I usally Download something every so offten well actually I am usally always downloading Something I am somewhat of a gamer and Love watching Demos of other games ..Anyways

I would love to get some info or help on this Problem If anyone Could Thanks in Advance!

Here are my specs!

AMD Thunderbird / QDI Legend MainBoard (Yes I know it creates Alot of Problems even that win2k one =\)
TNT 2 Video Card
256mb of RAM
1 G Pro

 

USB or PCI NIC?

 

Using SOHO Ethernet Card ...not USB ...Got SpeedStream Modem