Macbook Pro going very slow.

Hi, i've had my macbook pro for 2 1/2 years now, so its getting on a bit. I'm not that great with computers...so was wondering if anyone could help me out.

Basically, in the last 2 months its started going really slow. When i open a few programs at a time, like chrome, itunes, skype, mail etc. it can't handle it very well. Opening a new tab or loading 2 videos on youtube it struggles with too. It also gets pretty hot. I constantly find myself restarting every few hours.

Was wondering if there is anything i can do about this? Or should i just completely wipe it and reinstall the operating system?

I have Mac Version 10.6.8, 2.26 GHz, 1GB memory.

Plus i still have 40GB free. From browsing these forums it says that these signs show that memory would be low? Do i need to purchase more ram? Is that worth it?!

Thanks

An extra GB or two of ram wouldn't be a bad idea.

But the first thing I'd do is run repair permission/disk verify from Disk Utility.

Then get Onyx for Snow Leopard and run the automation scripts.