XP Freezes when I go to the net!

I have a HP Pavillion 533w with 2.0 GHz and 256 MB. I recently got Verizon DSL internet, and since then, my computer has been hosed. Most of the time when I go to the internet, the whole machine will freeze and I am forced to turn the machine of and then on again in order to use it. I have deleted the Verizon software, and I’m still haveing a problem. I did the XP system restore, the HP system recovery (both regular and with quick format), with no luck. I still have the same problem. What can I possibly do to fix this? It’s very frustrating, and I don’t want to wipe the drive and build my system from the ground up.