Here is my QUESTION. Can I set up my disk drives has a raid array and EXPECT to have faster speeds on my computer?
My ASUS A7V8X has a P4 at 2.6Ghz and 1Gb memory.
I have the VIA RAID Tool that came will the motherboard.

I have at least two motherboards here that can support a raid system. The raid drives would have to be SATA drives. The Windows XP version I have will run on SATA, but I've never attempted to use it on a raid drive.
Have a matched pair of 40 GB satirized that I could use for the raid array. The stuff that I don't use every day I could store on larger IDE drives I have. I have both 160 and 250gauge IDE drive. I ALSO have some smaller IDE drives that could be used if needed.
So what I'm thinking of is this: one IDE drive for just the operating system, then the two-sided drives has a raid array with everything else on it, including the program files. Would that give me any speed advantage over my present setup adjust using a large IDE drive?

Some programs are slow to load. Like my Voice recognition.
An yes the Voice Recognition is better in Windows 7, but windows 7 is slow on this ole single core CPU. So I was thinking of gong RAID on Windows XP HOME Edition.

An I do not want to spend on dime on any thing new. I GOT a lot of stuff lying around here and I would like to come up with one system that would be fester than what I have. RAID is one thing I have not tired.

There are negative remarks out there about RAID for a home computer.r. Why?
Example:

RAID - Not such a clever idea for your home PC

The link you provided about says it all. "RAID - Not such a clever idea for your home PC "