I don't know if there is an add-on for the additional laptop, for a graphics accelerator in the PCM/CIA card slot? I think it's called? Can the memory not be upgraded, and then shared in the BIOS, to provide more power for the video side of it?
But I think I recall a friend of mine having this game, or similar, and saying not compatible with video card, due to ActiveX or Flash issues, on his Mac, and he had a Mac pro, eventually sorted the issue, and was due to bad programming, as you got a linear screen display, with blobs running up and down. Nothing technical. So maybe on install there is an option to disable extra graphics? Or buy the previous game to this (they are all sequals anyway), and download latest stats.
Or download any fixes that may be available. Good luck, hardly a game to test a very slow lappy, never mind a 3 year old one could the laptop be faulty?