Why does the Sims 3 keep freezing on me?

I'll be playing the game and it'll freeze about every 30 seconds. It freezes only for like 5-10 seconds, but its more than enough to affect the game play. I've tried uninstalling custom content, turning off all other programs on the computer, emptied my recycle bin, restarted the computer, downloaded a patch. None of it works. Went to EAgames.com support, they told me to do a clean re-boot, that didn't work. **My computer specs match the game requirements** as well...anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?!