FF8PC will work fine on today's computers, with a little help from Rivatuner and the Geforce patch for FF8PC. (I said some stuff about in that FF7FAQ, if you scan down far enough.)
Go to the FF7FAQ, and do the part about modifying the config file of Rivatuner.
http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=2670[ForceWareFSAAModes]
FSAAMode01=2 x 1
Required01=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode02=1 x 2
Required02=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode05=2 x 2
FSAAMode06=ff06
FSAAMode0C=ff0c
FSAAMode0D=ff0d
FSAAMode0E=2x
FSAAMode0F=Quincunx
Required0F=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode10=4x
FSAAMode12=4x 9-tap
Required12=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode13=4xS
Required13=170h,18Fh,200h,
FSAAMode17=6x
Required17=200h,
FSAAMode19=8x
Required19=200h,
FSAAMode1A=16x
Required1A=308h,30Fh,338h,33Fh
Once you do that, go inside Rivatuner to the part where you change Anti-alaising setting and select one of the pulldowns that start with ff...try all of them, one of them should work.
The backgrounds pretty much will be without glitches. They may be black block here and there, but for the most part it will be playable and satisfying to look at.
As for running FF8 on that old computer....FF8 was always a bear to run....the World Map is the slowest part of that game....I guess it's not optimized to run on anything, Blame it on the porters.