Set the sort space size to specify the maximum amount of memory that the XDB Server will attempt to acquire when performing a sort operation. Sort space is acquired on a per-sort basis. The sort space size does not define a common pool shared by all users, but rather the maximum amount of space provided for each individual sort request. If a particular sort process does not require the total amount of memory allocated by the Sort Space Size setting, the excess amount of memory is released back to the operating system.
Increasing the sort space size allows the system to process large sorts more quickly, and store larger amounts of data at a single time, requiring fewer merges of sorted information. However, if you set this value too high, relative to the number of concurrent sorts or users, query processing may slow down significantly due to over-allocated memory.
To set the parameter on Windows 2000: