Everyone, now might be a good time to Defragment your Hard Drive and run Ad-Aware. When starting BF2142, it might also be a good idea to close all unnecessary programs. End it All is a freeware program designed to do just that - it gives you a list of programs and lets you choose which to spare (explorer.exe and similar processes are of course protected by default), then you hit a button and every unspared program is closed. Very useful.
All these things will cause your computer to run faster or your connection to run more smoothly when you're on the battlefield, which in turn means a better experience for everyone.
"One of the bitches actually gave birth while she was attacking, and her puppies joined in on the carnage."
--the awesomeness that is Boatmurdered.