restoring Real Mode DOS to Win ME is a...

[eXor]

simple process which is detailed here

Works a treat  

Now that autoexec.bat gets processed I can add

C:\DOS\XMSDSK /Y /T Z: 1024

which creates a 1 meg ram drive and gives it the drive letter Z to avoid drive letter reordering.

Then in Opera 6.01 directory I amend opera6.ini,
replacing
 
Cache Directory4=E:\Program Files\Opera\Cache4

with

Cache Directory4=Z:\

Hard disk access is much less now when browsing , still getting some but dunno whether it's paging activity or Opera doing something. I'll investigate further.