Brothers in Arms, Need to speed up Checkpoint Reloads

[Lowtech]

Sorry for the noobness but I'm not sure if I'm on the right path here.

I've been playing BiA (single player) lately with limited success (I'm not a real good gamer). So every time I get blasted it seemingly takes forever for the PC to reload the checkpoint.

If I installed the latest patch and the No DVD/Fixed EXE will this allow for faster reload times. Makes sense in my mind but would like feedback from the pros.

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
A64 3000+ Winchester
Samsung SH-W08A DVD burner
1GB Mushkin dual channel RAM
80GB WD IDE HDD (scavaged from older rig)
Gigabyte 6600GT VGA (the fanless one)

TIA