2.4 cpu/512ram/256mb videocard- why after a few minutes of playing just fine would the game start getting jumpy and eventually stop playing altogether? I dont remember it doing this before, I changed nothing.

It could be that your video card or CPU fan are not working correctly causing them to over heat.

try clearing out your taskbar by your clock..run Msconfig then startup tab .. if you do not know what to uncheck drop me a email storm_gsl@yahoo.com and we can go through your system startup. and free resources

Before you go clearing out things I'd do this:

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del one time, then click on Task Manager, then goto the Performance tab. Look at your amount of Availible Physical Memory. With XP and 512mb of ram...the average start-up stuff and no spyware you should have around 300mb free. Make sure that you do this with no other programs running...as in close Outlook, Internet Explorer, etc...

If you've got below 150mb then you need to disable some startup items. Battlefield 1942 is a resource hog... Personally with a 2.4gig I'd recommend getting another 512 stick.