Well, in desperation and excitement to wanna play the Beta 4 this afternoon, I borrowed the sis's computer (Vista 32bit, 2g RAM Intel Duo Core 1.5 Ghz) and installed Steam, SDK Orange Box and GE:S 3.1.  I logged into a server, and the frame rate was retched. I was dead ten seconds before I even realized I died and already respawned.  I dubbed down all graphic settings to check to see if it was perhaps maybe the graphics card but it was not.  Still choppy video and sound.  I also started up my own LAN server, and same thing. 
Being familiar with computer I did do a spot check on all hardware, all drivers are up to date and nothing seems out of place.
Any idea's?  Perhaps a problem with the Source engine, cause it also does it with anything revolving around HL:2.  Tried to start that up as well, and unlike GE:S where it was just choppy graphics and sound, HL:2 just locked up.