...WinXP can run pretty snappily on a VM. The big limitation is that Win7 XPM supports only 16 MB VRAM, which hoses many "graphic-intensive applications" (a.k.a. "games").
The kicker (something Microsoft REALLY doesn't want you to think about) is that you don't have to buy into Win7 at all. You can run XP on a Mac, or on any PC under Linux, using sofware like VMware or Virtualbox. You can assign up to 4 cores with VMware, so there's no "limping along". No glitches, because it's not an emulation: it's the actual WinXP OS. And those games that XPM can't run will probably be happy with 128 MB VRAM and 3D-accelerated video.
Best of all, you can avoid exposure of the WinXP installation to email and the internet, so your malware worries vanish. No more interminable scans, no annual Symantax, no MacAffekxzxpfft. A stable system can remain stable indefinitely, and by saving a "snapshot" you can resurrect it at any time. If you simply *must* have Win7, well, you can run that as well. (And it will probably run XPM!)
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