Well that's not so bad, they have budget cards for around 60 bucks and I can run a lot of things on ultra, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem there. It's a good excuse to upgrade, even though it does kind of suck. While you're at it, please put your computer to sleep more. Wear and ttear is going to hit like a truck soon.
But for now you might as well use the emulator. It's not as good as using a real 3DS, but A good number of 3DS titles are pretty comfy on the PC anyway, so it's at least worth a shot.