Macbook Running Really slow

I have the first aluminum macbook. Lately it's been getting really slow and the beach ball is spinning and there is nothing I can do. Will I have to do a reinstall to get the macbook back to normal speed or is there some software I can use.

I have vmware installed on it and have windows xp,windows 7 and Linux. Would this effect the speed of the computer as I have experienced this before and have had those operating systems on my mac for a few months now and rarely use them.

When I first got the mac I tried to use bootcamp to install windows xp but didn't have the driver disc and removed the partition off the hard drive.

I haven't installed any new software lately on my mac and just wondering why it has got so slow checked the free memory and it is 99 gigs.

Any help would be much appreciated thanks

The virtual machines will only slow down your Mac when they are running. Have you tried repairing your permissions? If so, give OnyX a try (run the Automation).