samba - Dec 2003 - very slow link between Win2k SP4 and Linux samba server (2.2.8a)

I've been experiencing an incredibly slow samba access from a Win2k SP4 
client to a Linux samba server (Mandrake 9.0, samba 2.2.8a).

It seems like the file transfer rate is not so slow, but the initial 
opening of files on the Linux samba server takes very long (10 ~ 20 
seconds). The directory listing is also very slow.

In the past, it took me about 2.5 hours to compile Mozilla-Windows 
(whose source is stored on the Linux samba server) from the scratch. 
With Win2k SP4 installed, I had to give up after 24 hours (yes, 24hours).

I uninstalled SP4 and it became faster but is not as fast as before. If 
compiling Mozilla can be any measure of the speed (no other change has 
been made on both sides of the connection), it took me about 6 
hours(instead of 2.5). Besides, it appears that the access time gets 
slower as time goes on.

A bit similar problem was reported for Win XP (SP1), but not for Win2k 
SP4. MS provides a hot fix for Win XP, but it does for Win2k. Moreover, 
as I wrote above, downgrading to SP3 didn't fully recover the 
performance I used to have.

Has anybody suffered from this problem and found a way to work 
around/solve it?

TIA,

Jungshik