I was told that to buy a new PC with a printer port was nearly impossible because the new PC have USB ports instead
Sad, but true. Try an Ethernet Smooth Stepper instead (NOT the USB version). More power, much more.
XP may not be compatible with the faster machines
Chuckle. Total crap too. (I am running WXPSP3 on very new machines.)
Place your wallet on the table and tell the vendor that you will buy IF the machine is shipped with WinXPSP3 installed and running. If he can't, go elsewhere.
Theory: MS will have everyone move to Win8 on tablets, and this will revive the PC industry (and help the MS share price too). Some MS execs may even believe this.
Reality: Commercial users (in their millions) are quite happy with WXPSP3 on their existing machines and see no reason to change just to help the MS share price. Why should they - their current HW/SW does what the company needs just fine. The cost in $$ and hours of retraining staff from XP to Win8 would nearly kill many businesses.
Result: even the biggest companies (like Dell) will sell you a new machine with the Win8 disk *attached* (to keep MS happy), but with WXPSP3 installed and running. They will tell you that it is a 'special order', but YOU are the customer.
Cheers