Hey masg1,
In response to your question about multiple chat rooms, I too go into multiple chat rooms at the same time (using multiple browsers) and I agree that it is very CPU intensive! I would recommend that you increase your RAM to handle it. I went from 256MB of RAM to 512MB and it definitely made the computer more useable and way less sluggish.
Also, I learned the hard way, but if you attempt to be logged into more than 3 Yahoo chat rooms (at the same time) for any length of time, then you risk getting locked out of your Yahoo account. Yahoo will think you are a SPAMMER of some sort when you do this. I suppose having a dynamic (changing) IP address versus a static (staying the same) IP address would help you evade Yahoos scrutiny longer but that is just my guess.
Lastly, in response to what Oreo said about why anyone would want to be in more than one chat room at the same time any ways: I would tell her that it is not an uncommon thing for people to do or want to do. It’s especially popular if the person in question is not so much of a chatter but are instead hoping that people will PM them (maybe because of their flashy or descriptive screen name! lol).
Hope this helps some!
Paladin