Sudden increase in lag

The last few days I have experience a large amount of crippling lag. The last two days I would log onto a character and immediately the game would freeze. Today the freezes have seemed to be replaced with frequent internals of lag. Previously, my computer ran the game without any troubles. Ive tried to download the latest video drives, turn down my graphics, and run stress test on my system, but have not found the problem. Any input would be appreciated.

From CoH helper

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at June 26, 2010 09:42 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-7260
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz
Memory: 3072MB
.Net Memory Report: 2430MB out of 3071MB available
Page File: 3878MB (568MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD1200JB-00GVA0) 79762MB out of 114463MB (69%) free
E Drive: (WDC WD1200JB-00GVA0) 5MB out of 7MB (64%) free
D Drive: (LITE-ON LTR-48125W) zero-size drive
F Drive: (SK3756X YOE108Q SCSI CdRom Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 10.0 (4.10.0000.18000)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.2180 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 7600 GT
Video Memory: 256.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0012.5721
Driver Date: 6/7/2010 4:57:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Realtek HD Audio output
Driver File: RtkHDAud.sys
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5242
Driver Date: 4/5/2006 11:20:44 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: MSI
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: MS-7260
Motherboard Version: 1.0
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: Default System BIOS
BIOS Version: A M I - 5000612
BIOS Release: 20060512000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1430x837
3D Resolution: 1430x837 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 1, -1
Refresh Rate: 59Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: None
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Unknown (5)


World Texture Level: Medium
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.800
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Stencil shadows
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Disabled
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.250
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 342383 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201006040036.3T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

My system now crashes at the character selection screen.

I have had play-stopping run ins with lag over the past 3 days, myself.