how to speedup debian/gnome

mylittlellj

get debian etch/unstable netinstall cd burned
after base system installed only following scripts executed
'apt-get install pppoeconf'
'pppoeconf'
'apt-get install xserver-xorg xserver-common xfonts-base'
'apt-get install gnome'
well, after X server configured then I startx
GNOME Seems pretty good, but the theme changer consumes 5 secs before it launched
, so the question is how to speed up the system or applications?
my box:
epox 8kha+, duron 1.1g, mem 640m, HD 80g