Quote from d6nn :

i used to get 80-100 fps on the xp. now ive gone down a lot in settings but still get occasional 30 fps when driving within reach of other racers.

Are you really stupid like that? If you got with XP more frames the reason have to be in operating system. And your specs "Intel duo core/1GB RAM" is not enough good with Windows 7. For example, Intel Pentium IV is duo-core but it's still rubbish. So, the final investigation result is that your computer is too old.

Quote from Whiskey :

Maybe the 3D desktop and LFS is too much for your laptop?

That's correct.

Aero (3D desktop) is deactivated whenever some external D3D application is active. Such FPS drop after OS change points me to the drivers. W7 have a lot of drivers built it, but updating whatever driver you can is worth a try. Especially the GFX drivers you should download from nVidia site and not rely on the W7 autoupdater...

Quote from MadCatX :

Aero (3D desktop) is deactivated whenever some external D3D application is active.

I was not sure about that, so I said it hehe

What about energy modes? (performance, battery saver...) Win7 sure have more modes than XP, maybe some preset is interfering with the optimal value for playing