Using a 3rd party application for uninstallation, Revo uninstaller Pro, I found a significant amount of registry keys and folders that was associated with either the 32 or 64 bit version of the browser.
I had them all deleted to make sure the system was clean, then reinstalled Opera.

Looking at the task manager it seems to have stabilized now.
Closing and opening the browser a few times just to make sure it was not just a fluke.
Its now swinging at 7-8%(07-08) and holding steady there.
So it must have been some lingering effects from the old registry keys and folders that cause the trouble.

Thank you for the help, I can now use the browser again.

Not sure what you mean with your last question here, but to explain what I did.
I downloaded and installed the browser from the net after starting up the computer the first time, then copy/pasted the sessions folder into the appropriate folder.

Opera is installed as a full Windows Application

Of the sites I have open only a few have any kinds of animations, 3 or 4 at most, and its very little animation at that, most the sites are either text based forums or text based sites with some static static images.

I did originally install a 64 bit version of Opera, but wanted the 32 bit one instead.
Thought I have since uninstalled it and deleted the "user" data, could there be some lingering stuff from it that could cause interference?

I have not tried reinstalling the browser beyond that, but I can uninstall and then reinstall it again to see if it helps

I did as you suggested above, deleting the files you mentioned.
Instead of saving a session I bookmarked the various tabs I the order I had them open.
That way I could recreate the sites/tabs in the order I had them without using any of the saved sessions that might be corrupted.

After opening about half of the sites, the problem came back again.
I have done this thing with copying sessions many times before, and never encountered this particular problem.
So I'm starting to suspect that maybe is not just Opera, but something involving a combination of Opera, my OS and hardware.

Our last messages seem to have crossed over each other. I don't quite understand what you meant by loading a previous saved session same as the last autosave session. Do you mean you were having the problem, saved the session, shut down Opera, then restarted Opera with that saved session?
Many times, if Opera is doing something weird involving previously-visited sites or sessions, the problem may lie with issues in Opera's cached data or in its session records. Clearing either or both is thus often successful in ending the problem.

We seem to be crossing each others paths a bit here.
A more through explanation seems to be in order.

Before I shut down my old computer, I manually saved my open session.
This is something I do sometimes as Opera can seem to forget(delete) the last autosaved session if it or my computer crashed, my old computer was heavily plagued with bluescreens due to a hardware issue.

I the copied the sessions folder to an external HD, and then copied it from the external HD to my new computer.

What I did while having a session running was simply load the latest manually saved session and close the old one, which seems to have stabilized it for now.

If the chache could be the culprit, how to I clear it?
Same with previously visited websites for that matter.
I tried deleting the list of previously visited sites in the past, but there must be an easier way to do it than delete each entry one by one?

As for the session data I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Yes its 4-6%, and you are right its not much.
Opera has never been very demanding on my CPU usage, which is one of the reasons why I use it.
Though it seemed to have a memory issue on my old computer where it would use almost half the available RAM, though this don't seem to be a problem anymore.

The CPU usage does happen in a cycle as you say, it goes up to the 04-06 range, and then drops in increments to 01-00, and this happens in a regular cycle of a few seconds.

The Antivirus I use is Panda.
It has a process surveillance system that can track the URL access of each process, though I had to turn that off earlier as a bug in Panda it was causing bluescreens when that option was turned on.
I installed an update for it, but have yet to turn that option on.

A second option in the same category is simply a process surveillance, though I'm not sure what it does, its the first time I use Panda so have yet to learn it.

Other than that there is a safe surfing category that's turned on, that seems to be about what sites are trusted and not.

But I would have thought that if Panda was the culprit, deactivating it would have had an effect on the problem, something it did not have

I shut down Opera for a few minutes, then started it up again.
Then I loaded a previously saved session, same as the last autosave session, and it seems to have stabilized for now.
Though this has happened a couple times previously, so I suspect the problem may show up again.
But I have no idea where to start looking for a solution.

I tried with a different browser, the issue is limited to Opera.

Did as you suggested with the task manager and just by keeping an eye on it I did discover something that seems to be related.

The CPU usage goes up to 04-06 and then drop in 1 or 2 increments to 00-01 at which point the hesitations as you call it happens.

Judging from that it seems to be CPU related.

The memory usage seems to be steady all the time.

As to why its happening, I'm at a total loss where to even begin to look

I just got me a New computer yesterday.
The only difference from the old one other than the hardware is that I use Win 7 Pro instead of Home Edition, and Instead of Norton I use Panda Antivirus.

My problem is that Opera keeps "freezing" if you can call it that every few Seconds.
During these brief freezes I cannot do anything, but if I am typing something on a website during these "freezes" it will just display once it starts running again.
I don't know how else to explain it.

It don't matter if I have 1 tab or 20 tabs open, it happens regardless of how many tabs I have open.
I never had this problem before, and it only started now with my new computer.
I did not have this problem when I bought a new laptop last year, Opera is running fine on that computer, its only on this computer.
I tried disabling my Antivirus to see if that was the cause, but it didn't have any effect.

I have been using this browser for years, and I'm very happy with it, so I don't want to have to change to another browser.
Its really frustrating as it makes it impossible to work with it, so I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem or know what the cause of it could be and how to fix it.
I'm not interested in upgrading to a newer version because the newer versions are missing many of the options and features from this version which I like very much.