Your going to have problems if your not that great with computers, Don't think there is a mac version of mach3 so if you want to run mach3 you will need a windows operating system. What version doesn't matter as long as it's 32 bit (if you want to use parallel port) Mach3 doesn't like 64 bit systems unless you are using something like a smooth stepper. That's probably why mad professor had problems before getting the smooth stepper.
If your using a mac to do your artwork unless you know how to convert mac files to windows then that's going to cause a problem don't know what other software is available to drive the router but mach3 might not be a good choice in your case. You might be able to run bootcamp or something similar on your mac but I'm not a big fan of emulators myself.