If you are going to 'Single Purpose' the laptop to run Mach3 it should be no problem. Here are a few things you can do, or get a computer geek buddy to help.
1. RAM is cheap now, find out what the maximum is for you model (usually 2~4GB) and upgrade.
2. Remove ALL programs not necessary to run Mach3 such as Antivirus and spyware programs, internet explorer etc, etc.
3. Uninstall devices such as printers and scanners.
4. Go to your 'Control Panel' and a) In 'Display Settings' turn off your screen saver and change your background to none.
b) In 'Power Settings' change all your "When laptop plugged in to AC" settings (will vary with make\model of system) to never sleep, always on etc. and save.
c) In 'System' go to your Device Manager and disable things like your Modem and Ethernet (assuming you are using you parallel port).
5. (Not for the Faint-of-Heart
) There are several processes, services and start up exe's that can be disabled or removed with tools such as Windows Sysinternals 'autoruns.exe.' and 'process explorer.exe' as well as right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Manage then Services\Services you will get a peek under the hood as to what exactly your system is doing. Please make sure you know what you are doing! Thm:
6. I would operate the laptop with the lid closed, using an inexpensive external monitor, keyboard and wireless rodent.
7. You could keep the laptop dual purpose by creating a new user account 'Mach3' for example and apply the above to the Mach3 account, just remember to re-enable your ethernet.
Cheers,
Chazz