Better performance expected from FS2004

Greetings Everyone!I sure hope this post finds everyone happly simming their lives away.My main sim these days is FS2004, and I think my performance should be better than what I'm getting. I'm not a fair weather pilot, so I like a lot of clouds when I'm heading into my destination airport. I'm trying to find out why my FPS and "smoothness" would drop when I start getting into the clouds. And I'd like to know what I can do enhance the performance of my rig. Sometimes it's less than 10. But for sure that "smoothness" is always lacking when I'm shooting an ILS.One thing that's really annoying is when I spot view the plane. It can take 15 seconds for the textures to fill in. I'd welcome any comments or suggestions that people might have. I would think that 6 years after the release of FS2004 that I should be having great performance. Not poor. Anyway, enough complaining. Here are my specs;Intel Q6700 [email protected] g-skill DDR3(1066?) RAMSata II harddriveATI HD4800 series GPUATI HD3800 series GPU (third monitor. no crossfire)1280x1024x32 Low AA(x4?) and AF(x8?)FS2004All display sliders maxedCloud cover maximumSite distance 60midraw distance 40 or 60 mi (can't remember which)Flight1 ATR-72MyTraffic 2006@75%Ultimate Terrain USAFSG North America Terrain Mesh@72mThat's about it. If anyone has any suggestions that'd be great. Thanks for your time,-Matt