Any Recommended Tweeks for OS9.2?, Performance Tips Options

Hello.

I am a relative newbie to Macs and the depths of it's OS's. I had just finally got me a G4 1Ghz Dualie w/1.5GB ram, a few months back, and its performance is not too bad,,, I must confess I was expecting something a bit more spectacular. Perhaps, this is simply due to the simple fact that I have no clue yet how to optimize my machines performance. Can you suggest any real good, tried and tested tweeks to help improve overall system performances and stuff for us neophite or even intermediate Mac musicians?

One example of a concern: When I try to load an Instrument or even a sound in Reason 1.0.1, it seems to hang for a while, takes quite a bit longer for the Reason module to load and finally appear (approx 8-12 sec!!!) on my G4 as it would on my lil P3 500Mhz peecee beastie (within 1-3 sec). Why is this? There has got to be a tweek for this, I even tried boosting reasons memory to almost twice the required amount

Another issue I am having is Macs retartedly SLOW browsers, any good suggestions for a nice quick browser? or any tweeks to speed up a relatively slow browser like,,, oh, lets say: IE ,or what have you?

Oh, and how the heck do we best defrag our drives??? My mantra used to be 'Defrag Daily' until I got a Mac.

Thanks for any help. Cheers!