why is there a delay when opening an e-mail link to IE or word?

[KillBill]

i changed computers recently and this entailed a move from xp home to xp pro.
since the switch, any time i try to open a link from an outlook e-mail to
either internet explorer or a word document there is a very long delay,
usually over a minute. this also occurs when i use another program, some
novel-writing software, that exports to a pre-formatted word document. so it
appears that it's an office 2003 problem.

has anyone seen this before and is there a known fix?

thanks.