New PC - parallel ports differences

Hi all!
I finally jumped in and bought a 6040 CNC machine.. mostly for hobbiest use and to learn..


However I'm now looking at what PC to pair it with.
I'm not 100% sure on what software I'll be using yet but may perhaps use Mach3 as it seems to be the most popular..


In regards to the PC, I'm thinking at this stage that I'll do a dual boot with XP 32bit for the CNC side.. and a fairly powerful windows 7 side.
I'm currently thinking I want a motherboard with:
i7 cpu.
USB 3.0
Parallel port
Serial port
Dual PS/2 ports.


However upon searching, I'm wondering is there any trap I should look out for when searching for parallel ports? There's blue or pink varieties.. are they the same?
I've read somewhere about some providing a lower voltage.. is there a way to confirm this beforehand or is it only PCI adapters that do this?

The color of the port means nothing.
One thing I'd be concerned with is that it's unlikely that you'll find XP drivers for any modern motherboard.

Ah thanks. Yes it's nigh on impossible it appears so I'm mainly looking at refurbished H61 motherboards. Think I've found one in the Asus H61M-Pro. Seems to have everything I need and has XP drivers