System slowing to a crawl

My AAO running hardy heron has recently slowed quite considerably. I've noticed in system proccesses that there is about 13 instances of python running, is this normal? Im running at like 80 percent with just firefox open, i also of course have compiz and avant window navigator running, but they really aren't taking up that much ram. Does anyone know what might be causing this sudden slowdown? I mean firefox is even going grey now and its really frustrating because i haven't made any big changes, so i dont know whats happenin. Please help me!

EDIT :
I see now that each python running is for each icon on avant window navigator and a couple other things. I also turned off some things in session manager that i didnt need to startup. Still running around 60 percent though...Hmm...I just dont know whats hoggin up so much memory. Im considering just cleaning house and turning off compiz and all this other eye candy and just putting Netbook Remix on here. You guys think thats a good idea? would it free up alot of resources and make my aao zip around again like it used to?