Win2K Pro on Network Slow

I am installing win2K pro on Dell 733 and 833MHZ machines (RAM 384MB)running Novell client(primary) and also in a domain. I’m baffled on the slowness of apps launching (Ofc97) and network interaction. My users were working on 150 MHZ (40MB RM) Win95 machines and had better performance. MS office apps are running local – file server is local – some WAN interaction on some apps. But bootup and running local printing is horrible. Upgrading seems to be a downgrade. Any info would be appreciated.