What are the basic tasks you can't complete?
Are you running 32-bit Windows or 64-bit Windows? How much RAM you need for decent performance depends on what programs you are running, but for almost everyone 4GB is the absolute minimum for 32-bit and 8G the absolute minimum for 64-bit. So there's a good chance that your problem is caused by not having enough RAM.
And note that the i3 is the slowest of the current Intel CPUs.