Screenshots (once again)

If you've got a better suggestion that is both legal and free, I'll definitly give it a try.

Well, there's no sense in not using the built-in XP firewall, since it uses almost zero resources. If you insist on using another firewall, I'd use Agnitum Outpost or Look 'n Stop. Look 'n Stop is orgasmically secure if you learn its rule system, plus it's really lightweight. Both of those aren't free, but who cares, unless you're some uptight moral hiporcrit who was raised by a soccer mom and God.

As for anti-virus, I recomment F-Prot or Kaspersky. If your anti-virus installs a resident automatic scanner, disable it...they generally use too many resources and slow the system down. They also like to scan obscure files, like game data files, so load times in games are typically doubled. Use the on-demand scanner. The odds that you get a virus are slim to none anyway, as long as you don't download "lol kewl 3d calculator with nekked boobiez!" from your local AOL chat room.

As for spyware scanner, use whatever you want...it's generally not a problem as long as you use an alternative browser and aren't an idiot who downloads "TEH COOL NEXT GENERATION IM SMILEYS!!"