Grizzly G1006 with Servos

Yes.  That's the idea.  I have a 7i96s already mostly wired.  I spent much of this weekend working on getting the configuration setup, using pncconf.  Only to find that Claude (online AI) led me astray.  I should have been using stepconf.  Or even better... MesaCT. 

pncconf and MesaCT can both create 7I96S configurations, stepconf cannot (stepconf is for parallel port hardware)

Never trust AI.

It is totally unreliable.

(people are unreliable too, but AI is unpredictably unreliable)

BTW, you can buy a PCIe or PCI parallel port card for very little money.
www.sunix.com/en/product.php?cid=1&gid=5

Why can't the old PC run LinuxCNC?

Did you try older versions of LCNC?

www.linuxcnc.org/iso/ubuntu-10.04-linuxcnc3-i386.iso
www.linuxcnc.org/iso/linuxcnc-2.7.14-wheezy.iso

You can always put a new HDD in an old PC.

However, if you want to control the machine your way, that is also a good option.

It's up to you.