Need Advice on Antivirus Software and Firewall

Okay heres my situation. I was having problems with my pc running extremely slow. I had Norton Antivirus and Firewall installed into my system and it was wonderful. But I noticed after i uninstalled the 2 programs that my computer got a gigantic BOOST and everything ran much quicker. So I decided not to reinstall the program. So im asking for anyones advice on a good antivirus and firewall software which wont eat all my computers resources or slow it down. Any help will be appreciated.

I had the same problem with Norton products slowing down my system.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
its a free online virus scanner/deleter. Once there dat file was update quicker then Nortons was and it found out a virus Norton didn't.

http://www.free-av.com/
Great standalone virus scanner FREE.

As far as firewall I used blackice great piece of software. But now I have an actual hardware firewall. I turned my old PentiumII to a dedicated firewall/router/server using the freesco.org software.

Antivirus : F Prot
simple, fast, and effective.
(eventhough you need to pay, but not too much though compared to norton)

Firewall : Kerio .

(hum...used to be free...i guess you gotta pay now.
can find ZA personal for free alternative, but i still find kerio stronger)

Antivirus software - AVG antivirus
Firewall software - Sygate Personal Firewall, but the hardware firewall is always the best option, at least if you have an extra computer to use.

I don't know either so i would like to know as well.