Thanks for your help so far, folks!
I suppose I could turn off the clock feature, which would be only a mild inconvenience... then, maybe the compass feature, which would still leave the game playable with another slight inconvenience. I could also turn off one of the active effects windows, which isn't too useful anyway, and as a final step, completely remove the "Frames Per Second" window.
However, a lot of the UI elements really are required to be able to play. He needs to be able to see his life bar, he needs to be able to see the life bars of his group members and their targets (really necessary for a tank). He needs access to the chat feature in order to communicate on a basic level. He needs to be able to see his current level. He needs access to the EQ2 button to be able to log out properly. A majority of these windows are really needed in order to operate.
Would it be helpful to turn off the text smoothing feature?
I'm wondering if there may be a workable alternate UI out there which would be less taxing on the system.
Thanks again!