Computer reboots during long table join

[mos]

I'm running MySQL 4.1.10 on XP and I was doing a 2 table equi join join on 
a date field that was indexed. There are It was taking quite a long time so 
I let it run overnight.  There are 200 million rows in the first table, but 
a Where clause on the second table would have reduced this to around 50 
million rows. This morning I got in and the computer had rebooted itself 
sometime during the night. (This is usually not a good sign before the 
first cup of coffee.<g>)

There were no errors in the MySQL.Err log file. Explain said they were 
using an index for both tables.

1) Can MySQL join two tables of this size?
2) Is there a problem using a Date join? I noticed before doing date joins 
was extremely slow, even when indexed.
3) Is throwing more RAM at the problem going to help? Is there any way of 
knowing how much RAM is enough?

TIA
Mike
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