If Skuzzy sees this,, a question for win2k and XP related to this thread.
Instead of the pagfile which in most cases should be set same starting size as ending size, what about either /3GB in the boot.ini to increase user mode memory pages to 3Gbytes or even possibly - Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Session Manager\Memory Management
Add the REG_DWORD - PoolUsageMaximum
Set it between 10-50 decimal.
My thought is by default the memory manager is set to audit and reclaim memory threads at 60-80% of the total pool issued. Setting it to a smaller number will cause it to reclaim sooner, and reduce some amount of leakage.
I have to tune SQL servers where I work for issues like this. Just a thought.
My PC at home has enough hardware resources that I don't have to memory tune for the game. I probebly should borrow a underpowered box and test. Figured Skuzzy would have tried this already for early beta testing.