yeah, the amount of add-ons doesn’t slow down the browsing in Firefox (even if there must be exceptions with a few specific add-ons though), just the startup.
have used this program for a long time with no problems or issues to speed up the fox 
http://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox
I’m going to have to look into this.
Are you serious? Even when you had dial-up? I am so jealous now. 
Even when I had dial-up the add-ons didn’t cause any issues, for the most part the add-ons once loaded are inert until required.