ASP && SQL Server On Separate Machines Causes Performance Degragation

I am currently running a windows 2000 machine with asp, sql server,
mail server, ftp server etc all on the same box.

The site runs several hundred ecommerce stores. Recently the
processor utilization has been spiking and I have decided to get
another server and use sql server on one and asp on the other.

So now I have a new windows 2003 server that I have setup all of the
asp code on. Problem is that when I run the asp code from the new
windows 2003 server it is extremely slow compared to the code running
on the old windows 2000 server which is where the sql server database
is also located.

From everything I have read the best way to optimize your site is to
use 2 separate servers one for iis/asp and one for sql server.

Am I doing something wrong here or is this normal??

Could this possibly be just because the old server is still serving
many requests and is pushing the requests from the new server to the
back of the line?

Does anyone have any ideas?

The syntax I am using to open the connection string is:

db_ConnectionString = "Driver=" & db_Driver & ";Server=" & db_Server &
";UID=" & db_UIN & ";PWD=" & db_pwd & ";Database=" & db_Database & ";"

conn_store.Open db_ConnectionString
where db_server is the ip address of the windows 2000 server

Is there a better way to do it across a network??

Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.