Microsoft Works Mail Merge runs very slowly

[MoiraT]

I have a client who uses Works 7.0 for mail merge with 3800 records (I know, I would also love them to use something else). They have recently found that the mail merge is running very slowly, about 10 minutes to retrieve the data. Before then it was running smoothly and much quicker. They use WinXP Pro with 128MB memory. The task manager shows that during the merge process the CP is running at 98-99% but the memory usage is only 12MB. There are no other programs on the PC. Any ideas as to what can cause this? Or are they just trying to get a quart out of a software pint?
Thanks