Hardware requirement for 8-table

I think this might be a better place to post than computer technical help board. Anyways, I've been doing 8-table for a while and it slows down the system to a degree that I can't bear it any more. My PC setup is P4 2.4/512MB.

Does this happen to everyone or it is just me? Will upgrading to 1GB help? What's your PC configuration and how's its performance? Thanks.