Hi,
Mach will run on a parallel port, that is a DB25 plug. The parallel port can be quite tricky to get to work. The PC HAS to be a 32bit OS Windows 7 or earlier.
Often you need to strip out all sorts of junk and optimize all sorts of settings to get it to run smooth. Even then if you try to run another program while running
Mach on a parallel port you'll probably stall or crash your machine.
There are still a lot of people who use it, it is free, all you need is a really simple breakout board and you can get started.
There are now lots of good external motion controllers, the cheapest about $100 and up into the thousands with $200 getting a useful hobby grade one. They plug into
your PC by USB or Ethernet. They tend to be faster and smoother. They are also very much less inclined to go cranky because something the PC did and you can run
just about any Windows OS.
I've used parallel port and it was pretty good but then I bought an Ethernet Smoothstepper and it goes real smooth and well. I won't be going back to parallel port.
All you have to do is decide if you want to spend the bucks.
Craig