Virtual memory

[Knipples]

My laptop is 5 years old, and now very slow and crashes/freezes a lot (roll on the birthday fairy!) anyway it keeps telling me that the computer is low on virtual memory and that windows is increasing it blah blah - am sure you know the thing I mean.

I just let it get on and do it, but what does it actually mean. I have 8 gig free on my computer, so its not physically full up, but can someone tell me if I can do anything to help it run better.

When its doing the "increasing" thing, images are usually not displayed, and the little pictures by my bookmarks sometimes disappear.

All my virus protection is up to date, and so is my spyware.