Firefox 3.0.3 + Search Engines (Google etc.) + Vista = Slow/No loading

Hi,

I have Firefox 3.0.3 on Vista Ultimate. It was working fine until
recently but now I have noticed that links from search engine results
are not loading most of the time. I am clueless about this performance hit.

A similar search using IE browser is working fine.

I have reinstalled my laptop but Firefox and Search Engine results are
not getting redirected. Here are a few sample links from the results
from Google. The search topic was "Fall colors New England"

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...aWYwIgqvcB6HYg

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...cP9O_FCj0af-Qg

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...qbFbehe_OXkJRg

Why is the search engine in the prefix of the URL? Is there a new form
of DoS attack that we are not aware of? Could someone please let me
know what is happening? Are search engines throttling
performance to promote their own browsers?

Everything was working great until about 3 weeks ago.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

NJ