Increase performance of SQL Server by using RAM

Hi,
I have MSSQL-Server 2000 installed on a PIII 1.2 GHz server running with 256 MB of RAM.
The server is starting to run slower and slower at the peak times.
When ever I check the task manager performance, the processor is always bussy with red indicator, while the RAM is calm and running under 50%.
Is there any configuration in MSSQL-Server, I can do, so I can use the RAM to take some of the load on the processor?

I will really appreciate your help.
ThanksSQL server does all its actions in RAM. So if you insert more RAM the performance should (technically) increase. But first check how much RAM is available for SQL server and monitor the harddisk activity.|||Could you please help me, how to check for the amount of RAM reserved for MS SQL server?

Thanks|||Start SQL Enterprise manager
1
Connect to the appropiate SQL server

2
Right click on de name of the server in the right panel of the screen and select properties.

3
Choose the Tab memory

The memory must be configured as Dynamically with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of the total amount of RAM availleble.

You did determine that the process sqlservr.exe is consuming the bulk of the RAM and of the CPU time? If not than another proces is responsible for the slow response time!|||If you've sufficient memory allocated to SQL Server (Microsoft recommends don't restrict sql to a particular amount of memory, let it acquire memory on its own, hence it is preferred to allocated all memory dedicated to sql server.) If this is setted properly go to 'Performance Monitor', and under System object see '%Processor Time' which should be well below 80% . At the same time also see 'Processor Queue Length' which should be below 2 or equal to 2.

If above conditions are not satisfied you have processor bottleneck and must upgrade your processor