Guys - I have a cheap solution for everyone who continues to have these frustrations.
You can now buy a desktop tower up to 2GHz with good sized disk and reasonable graphics card for less than £30 +delivery on e-bay.
Go get one for FL only, and rest your eyes and heart and spend your free time with your friends in Freelancer. Life is too short.
Use your new-fangly PC for the latest games that need it.