I am having the same problems as you. I installed Limewire just fine. The version before worked fine. But just after startup, It taxes my system resources and eventually stop responding.

My System:
1000Mhz Athlon
396MB PC133 RAM
60GB Ultra2 Scsi Cheetah Drives
OS:
Windows 2000 Professional w/ SP2

I just re-installed my os yesterday and added the new Limewire.