Tangential to Topic: Old Chip Programmers Work w/ || Port in Docking Station?

I have a Needham EMP-30 chip programmer. I've been keeping an old Pentium (mumble) computer around to drive it (vaguely on-topic since it's definitely more than 10 years old). It has a parallel port interface. I would like to replace the ancient behemoth computer with a notebook to save space. I would also like to buy a modernish laptop to run things like FPGA and Microcontroller development/interface systems. I'd like them to be the same laptop, so right there I'm looking at USB and parallel port on the same notebook. Looking around, that does not appear to be available in new products. Ordinarily, I don't shy away from used equipment (who does, on this list?), but for notebooks, with their breakage issues and such, I would prefer to buy new. Further shopping revealed that Dell sells a Legacy Port Expander which works with some of their current notebooks and provides serial and parallel ports. And I think I've read somewhere while searching that the Needham software will work with Windows XP (could be mistaken, need to search again). Do any of you know if chip programmers (the EMP-30 specifically) work okay with the parallel ports in port expanders? How about the Cardbus (or whatever is replacing it) parallel port cards? Alternatively, anyone go through this exercise already and pick out what seemed like the ideal notebook model with USB and parallel ports. I might consider a used model if someone has a strong recommendation. Thank you for any discussion, Jeff Walther