I maybe wrong, but I highly doubt it was the laptops specs. for reference tho outdated, as example, back in the day when i used epsxe, it was v1.6 and ran it on a Celeron bairly pushing 1ghz, using SDram i think lol. I havn't tried the new versions, tho i do realize they will be using updated DX and OGL, that alone tho cant cripple a 2.8 core2.
I didn't click ur links, and i could be wrong. but if it helps any, my guess would be a difference in the Drivers/OS, or CDrom perhaps if ur running the games from CD instead of a ripped ISO disk image.
..a lot of peopls OS's are screwed up also with improper installations/malware/etc. not to say urs is, but thats the way the general population is.
EDIT: something random I just remembered.. I don't remember what kind of emu i read this about, was a long time ago. but it said that If ran on a overclocked system it may expereince glitches/errors due to timing issues perhaps IDKexactly. I know it probably doesn't apply anymore, I don't even remember what emu i read that about. and on that same note, but in a different technical manor.. in general an improper overclock can cause issues. Don't know if ur laptop is, just throwing it out there also for others. I personally don't OC, and ina nutshell especially to those who can't afford to do it right, the performance gain is minimal and not worth the risk of damage to ur components.