Visiting neighbors' farms

Hello. The probelem I am experiencing on Farmville involves visiting friend's farms to fertilize and feed chickens. It is something I truly enjoy, but each time it could take up to 15 min for the farm to load and complete tasks. The action just stops constantly and I constantly receive message that Windows Internet Explorer is not responding. I do not have Vista, would that possibly be one of the reasons for this problems. Any help will be truly appeciated. Jackie Crowther