On one machine I have the Windows Desktop Search

On one machine I have the Windows Desktop Search and on another the Google
desktop search. The Google machine gives me almost instant listings of
files when I start typing into the search box but the Microsoft one searches
about 10 minutes before producing any results. It always seems to be
hogging resources, running constantly doing indexing in the background.
Both are running Windows XP Pro, though the Google machine is a year old and
the other three years old.
Does this indicate a corrupted installation or is the Microsoft search just
really slow compared to the Google search? i.e. do I remove MS and install
Google, or is there a fix to this problem?
Thanks,
Mich