Free alternative to VirtualPC?

Is there a decent, free alternative to Microsoft's Virtual PC software available? I'm trying to get some old educational software written in Director to run on XP, and it only works correctly in Windows 95/98. Compatibility mode doesn't help it, and it just throws up error messages and freezes (I believe the problem is that the software is expecting Quicktime 2, which I have installed but with no difference to the errors).

There used to be an open-source VMware-type project out there (FreeMWare aka plex86). Oddly enough they got a working system, but it was dog slow. Said project died before anyone actually optimized the damn thing, and repeated attempts to bring it back from the dead have failed.

Ah, the things that could have been...