Outlook 2003 Issue

I am unable to open Excel and Word attachments in Outlook 2003. In my line of business, I get a lot of emails a day. In the past, I have been able to open attachments while receiving email. Now, if I try and open an attachment while receiving, the attachment gets hung up -AND- Outlook halts at receiving email. Instead of ending the process, I waited to see what would happen. Approximately a minute and a half went by until finally the attachment opened. Once Outlook is done receiving, the attachments open up within 10 seconds. I tried the following steps:

1. Disabling antivirus
2. Opening Outlook in Safe mode
3. Removed COM add-ons

The hang ups do not happen with .JPGs. Has anyone else experience this problem?