Any way i can make FFXIV run smoother?

[Khalus]

You need to upgrade to Windows 7 64bit. Especially if you upgrade your RAM, as you can only access some 3.2gb on a 32bit system. And even if you have access to 64bit XP its not really worth it anymore, cause XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, nor most newer games properly and Win7 is basically the second coming of XP & sliced bread at running games and apps...

Or if you wanna do a completely new system, there are builder kits with the new Intel Sandy Bridge or AMD CPUs and all the components you need to get up and running, ~sans a monitor, GPU and OS for $250~$400 all the time through Newegg and TigerDirect. They are a mid-range starter PC, based on the best parts out there, and will run XIV and other games better than what you are now.

[Adamsapple]

oh! yeah i have that catalyst program it came with the graphics card and i messed around with the settings and it actually works pretty well now and it doesn't look like FFXI.

[origamikitsune]

Some tips to improve performance:
Don't set General Draw Quality over 8 (There is little to no quality improvement, and none at all if you use any AA)
Don't use Ambient Occlusion
Play with your AA settings (Some cards seem to have a preference where 2x or 4x AA actually performs better than none)
Play with shadows (shadows are the easiest thing for the brain to gloss over because you rarely if ever focus on them directly)
Force vertical sync in your catalyst/nVidia control panel
Run Full Screen Mode (this will increase performance noticeably unless you have a REALLY good system)

Best way to improve performance is buy a new system / upgrade, but of course that costs money.