Im using cakewalk for most of my multitrack recording. One of my favorite optimizing tweaks is virtual memory (which is probably why i dont have any problem running at 196M of RAM). just go into your control pannel then in system, in the farthest right tab, theres a button called virtual memory, click into it and click the thing that says "let me specify my own virtual memory", this is where you change to whatever you want. i usually load 2000-4000 megs on minimum and maximum. it takes that much out of your harddrive but it really improves your entire computers performance. another biggy, is disable ANY write behind caching set. this is a no no for audio and video recording. go into the trouble shooting also found in your system thingy and check the one called "Disable write behind caching for all drive" (or something like that. theres also another one but its not such a big deal. Like i said before, i dunno if this is what makes me be able to record 4 tracks and playback 128 tracks simultaneously or not, but it does help a little and makes it run more smoother. another thing too, take out any other cards in your computer that you dont need, other cards use caching, and you need as much cache as you can get. another thing too that can be a problem with audio recording, is video cards, i recommend in your video card settings that you set the video cards hardware acceleration to none or minimum, this also reduces system caching.
Any questions about this? just ask me ill be glad to help yah out. (i relize i wasnt very specific on what i was saying thinkin everyone here is a computer technician...sorry).