Actually I think I might remember that. Was it black, with an awkward fan sticking out of the back somewhere?
Looking at mine, I don't think I'd be able to fit a fan anywhere at all...there's just no room. Back to cooling pads I guess.
So if I haven't damaged anything, what is causing it to behave like this? It heats up, and during anything graphics-intensive both cores jump to 100% and stay there while the framerate goes down the toilet...2-10 FPS or so. It definitely wasn't always this way. I played AoE3, Spore, Dekaron/2moons, and Quake 4, among others, with no problems. Now the only way I can do anything remotely similar is to set the thing up where the window AC unit in my room is lowing directly on the back of it.