Some cheap Parallel Port cards will work well and some won't, you may have to try a few before finding one which works reliably, I haven't had to start testing the ones I've collected yet and may yet move to an integrated stand alone controller before I need to add a parallel to a PC that shipped without one.

It's worth starting a new thread to ask if anyone has PP card recommendations, you'll get a lot of external and stand alone motion controller recommendations but you only need one good card recommendation to get you working, one of my best hopes (but untested so far) is a StarTech as in the past I have used their stuff successfully to get legacy hardware working on newer PCs in industrial applications.

Forget about XML files, all they are is a way to copy and transfer an already completed manual configuration, it's simpler to manually configure unless someone with exactly the same setup can provide you a copy of their XML file.
Once you have your system working the config XML file which Mach 3 uses to store it's settings is one of the things you keep a backup of as this allows you to copy your setup to a new installation of Mach3.

Your laptop does look to be the right kind of age and a PP on a dock has a better chance of working than an integrated laptop PP (5v VS 3v), suck it and see is the only way to find out for certain unless someone else has successfully used the same hardware.