1. Open FF and type about:config then press enter. 2. Type "pipe" (without the "") in the text box at the top of the page. 3. Change the first and last setting to true by double-clicking on them. 4. Change the middle setting from 4 to 16. 5. Close FF and open it up again. It should be quite a bit faster.
Oops. Before I posted this, I searched the Computing section to make sure it hadn't been posted yet, I didn't think of searching GD though.