I have a similiar question, game seems sluggish. I'll post system specs first:
Intel Celeron processor 600 Mhz, 192 Mhz ram (think its pc133), 10 gig harddrive (maxtor 5400 speed), onboard video. I got the latest drivers which were made in '04. Winxp home edition sp1.
this is an old box, also a Creative sound card (basic).
Computer is a Dell Dimension L600cx.
I run Arena at about 15000 cpu cycles, any more and the music sounds distorted, and you can sorta hear the voices (guards?). The framerate is horibble, but I managed to get out of the dungeon. If I press M for map, I gotta press it for a few seconds so it "takes". So response time for commands is slow too.
Set cpu emulation to Dynamic. Cpu type to 486_slow. Memory 8 mb, got ems, xms,and umb enabled, I dont know if these are needed or not.
Graphics at 640 X 480 resolution in Fullscreen, render set to Surface, video card to svga_s3, I have scaling set to none, no skipping on framerate.
Dos set to 5.0
According to bethesda, system req.s are 4 mb ram, 386sx 25.
Ideas?