ok…
My system: 2 Gigs of ram, Geforce 8600GT, Intel Core2 Duo 2.33GHz (it runs maya and 3ds max with no problems)
When I run Blender it starts fine but the minute i try to do something it bogs down to something like 1 frame per 10 seconds.
I have had this problem before, and someone on the forums helped me. All i remember is that it was an easy fix.
If i remember correctly it had something to do with selecting the right graphics driver or creating a page file or something…