What are some good ways to lower turn times?

Seriously, having to wait often 2+ minutes between turns is agonizing, and it only gets worse as the campaign goes on. As the title says: how do you make this suck less? Lowering graphics? Nuking factions with a mod?

Not even Empire was this bad, even with the Ottoman funkiness. I'd love to be able to enjoy this game, but I want to actually \*play\* it, not stare at the screen while hundreds of factions take their sweet time.