XMMS=CPU sucking beast --Help!

[1stFlight !]

    Is there a way of running XMMS without it sucking down ever resource
I have?  Whenever I run it, everything stop responding, Gnome, KDE
whatever..it all waits till the song changes, then whatever I've clicked
on while waiting executes....very messy. Any way to fix that and
maintain good mp3 playback?  Thanks



Darryl