Why are some (old) games jerking, (some) new games not?

I use VMWare Player with Windows XP to play old games. I have installed a lot of games, but many old games are jerking and are unplayable. For Example Command & Conquer 1 (The Ultimate Edition Version) or Project IGI. Other games like Far Cry 2 or Project IGI 2 running with high graphics details very fine. I dont understand this.I want to test some more games. If some newer games are unplayable it´s locical, because WMWare Player is only a guest-system, but old games dont need much power and some new games which need more power are very good playable.

My System: (Host):

Windows 7 (x64)

AMD Athlon X6, 2,7 Ghz

12 GB DDR3 Ram

AMD Radeon R9 280X

Guest System:

3D activated

4 GB Ram