How Do I Delete Many Rows Without Monopolizing Server?

Hello,

I am working on a project using SQL Server 2000 with a database containing
about 10 related tables with a lot of columns containing text. The total
current size of the database is about 2 Gig. When I delete data from the
database, it takes a lot of system resources and monopolizes the database so
that all other query requests are slow as mud!

Ideally, I would like to be able to issue delete commands to the database on
a primary table and get a fast response back. Then, it doesn't matter to me
how long the actual deletion operation takes as long as its priority is low
compared to the other query requests coming in. Typically, removing a
single row from the primary table results in a deletion of up to 300 rows
from related tables.

Questions:
1. Can I create a trigger on the primary table that will delete the rows
from that table, issue a delayed/low priority delete for all of the other
tables, and return to the application quickly?
2. Can a trigger be run in an asynchrous mode? (that is, issue the command,
return immediately, and then go about its business on its own time).
3. Can the priority of an SQL statement be specified?
4. Is there a Transact-SQL "sleep" command that would allow you to do some
work -- sleep for a little bit -- do some more work -- etc?

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.

....Thanks in advance...

--
Bob Ganger
General Dynamics
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