@ Oesi: I have the same CPU as you and a comparable graphics card from ATI (Radeon 5450). Mario Kart should work like a charm. About the hyper threading: I haven't changed anything in my BIOS, so it might have been switched off when I bought my PC. Anyway, dolphin uses 2 threads on 2 cores as it should.
Virtualisation is indeed something completely different, it's required by some virtual machines to run a 2nd operating system on top of your actual operating system. Microsoft VM requires it in Windows 7 for XP mode to work, for example.
One more thing about hyper threading, I remember that switching it on or off in the BIOS would stop your OS from being able to boot back in the Pentium 4 days. You could only change it -before- installing your OS. Not sure if this is still the case though. Just be aware.
Virtualisation is indeed something completely different, it's required by some virtual machines to run a 2nd operating system on top of your actual operating system. Microsoft VM requires it in Windows 7 for XP mode to work, for example.
One more thing about hyper threading, I remember that switching it on or off in the BIOS would stop your OS from being able to boot back in the Pentium 4 days. You could only change it -before- installing your OS. Not sure if this is still the case though. Just be aware.