IEXPLORE.EXE excessive CPU usage - PLEASE HELP!

Hello! For some reason, I posted this inquiry before and the message was locked?

In any case, my computer is pretty old, but works decently when using IE or firefox but then slows as surfing progresses. Task Mgr shows IEXPLORE.EXE using an excessive amount of CPU usage in cycles, especially when opening gmail. Additionally, I've noticed another problem. Now, in my Windows Task Manager, it sometimes shows up to 4 iexplore.exe processes running, even if I have only one browser window open (multiple tabs though). As for Gmail, the only way I can get it to behave even somewhat normally is to go to "older version", so there's no chat. That's fine, but I'm more worried now about if there's something wrong on my computer.

Any help?

This is suspicious. Have your pc checked by the geekpolice malware assistance forum.