Incessant lock ups.

117 degrees is plenty cool for an Athlon. I would suspect memory is the problem. Go here:

http://www.memtest86.com/

for free diagnostics.

Lockups can be caused by heat inside the system, probably the most source of lockups. 117 is not too hot but is that the processor temp or inside the cabinet. Your harddrive and memory modules are also subject to "heat exhaustion".
What Operating System are you using? Did you build this comp yourself or is it store bought? Does the lockup only occur when you are online? If you have this problem while online then it may be related to that activity. If this is a regular dial up, do you have call waiting? You may also receive excessive noise over the line (phone line) and this can cause lockups.
Deactivate your call waiting. Make sure the internals of your pc is well vented. Purchase a noise filter for your phone line. Install all udates for IE.

Sorry for my tardiness in a reply to you help.
Firstly saihib@lebanon.com, yes I went to the website mentioned, but I couldn't get the program to work from the floppy. Thanks for your offer of help.
Secondly, donmars, thanks for your assistance also. I use Win. XP (home)its not a brand name, its a built computer from a store. Happens with my dial up connection and offline too. No call waiting. I asked my phone company about line noise, they say it is in their acceptable parameters. I use a diagnostic program to check my system, it is called AIDA32 sysinfo tool. It checks various temps around the mainboard, among many other things. I have even reduced my hardware acceleration to zero in display properties on advise.
Well, thanks again, I probably will purchase a couple of new memory sticks (512Mb)and try them along with a case fan cooler.

I experienced this myself.. It turned out to be faulty/worn capacitors on the motherboard.. I had a friend replace them, (He's in the trade and I got it done cheap) and all is relievingly well now! :-)