Perhaps you should change your name to Shire-ette
Hard drive - how much stuff have you got at the moment? In my experience when a HD gets to 65-70% full it will start to slow down. Also its always recommended that you don't have less that 15% free space
3Gb RAM will be fine for web browsing, music and office stuff....etc. If you use video, pic editing software (adobe/CAD), or play games it might chug a bit.
When I get a new laptop I always uninstall or remove from startup all the crap they you will never need or use. PM me if you need any help