Windows Task Manager - Processes - Memory

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Recently, I have been wondering about how much K (the "K" from Windows Task Manager - Processes) my computer has. Because I Usually have about 100,000 K when Firefox is open with multiple tabs (which is almost all the time), and explorer.exe usually uses about 40,000 K, and MSN Messenger uses about 32,000.
Although it doesn't seem like too much K, my computer still seems to run ridiculously slow at times. I haven't reloaded this laptop once (and i don't have any plans to anytime soon). I have been using this laptop for about 1.5 years. I am pretty sure I don't have any viruses, because Hijackthis is not detecting any over the online analysis, and Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't seem to be detecting any. The reason I suspect most for my laptop running so slow at times (it isn't very fast on average anyway) is the fact that I have a remaining 3.29 GB/104 GB. Would having 3.29 GB remaining disk space reduce it's speed to the point where the speed decrease is actually noticeable?

I also apolologize, I know I asked multiple questions, but I haven't used a site like this before, and haven't had the chance to ask all these questions on sites before.

My system specs should be in my profile details, by the way.

Thanks, and I look forward to reading your answers!

There is a tutorial for increasing the performance of vista in the Vista Tutorials Section. That should make a difference...especially defragging your pc. Running that low on HDD space does hurt tho. I have experienced that. If you can remove data...it would be recommended. The "K" means thousands of bytes being used. For instance 100,000K actually means 100 Megabytes for memory being used. For a basic laptop of yours 3 GB of memory is acceptable and should run fine.

Sorry I am not great with links but like I said...in the Tutorials section..it will help you out.

Ok, thanks, I will try that out..