I don't know what the problem is but I can assure you it isn't normal.
I have had many dual boot systems and once they get past the initial
grub menu each operating system boots up in a reasonable minute or
two. Mind you, I'm still using Windows XP Pro and will never upgrade
from that as I intend to go 100% with Kubuntu at some point.

Swapfiles should be no more than twice the size of the amount of RAM
you have installed. I usually use only the same size as RAM. Most of
my systems are AMD or Intel running at 2 to 2.6 GHz with 2 MB of RAM
and all are from 2 to 6 years old. There must be something unusual in
your hardware for it to take so long. Do you have adequate RAM and a
CPU that runs in the several MHz range?