Having used a mac for years, I've always used either Parallels or Vmware Fusion for virtualization.

Before that, when I was using Linux, I used Vmware Workstation.

Today, when looking for a virtualization solution on Windows, I discovered Vmware Player.

It's free, and seems really fast. Just installed a virtual machine on it, and will do further testing as soon as I can.

But so far the signs seem very hopefully. I'm very impressed with the responsiveness, and that it doesn't cause the host to lag in the slightest.