How can I make Vista less of a resource hog?

[thejerkface]

I have Vista installed on my MacBook, and when I play poker I do it through VMWare Fusion (virtualization software similar to Parallels) into Vista. This can cause my CPU load to spike. I know Vista is a resource hog and I don't need all of its bells and whistles b/c I am only using Windows to play poker. Are there any settings I can change or programs to install / uninstall to make Vista consume less resources?

Thanks alot.