Last time I checked 2D games worked fairly well, but 3D games either didn't work or required a computer costing thousands to play.
There were a TON of driving games for the PS2.
Define a computer "costing thousands to play". I've for a PS2 emulator running (and the real thing) and what I've found is the CPU isn't the bottleneck - its almost completely the GPU. When I upgraded my Core2Duo 3ghz from a 8800GT GPU to a GTX460 GPU - it made a huge difference as far as game playability. I think I paid $145 for that card last year?
Oh a side note - I think you could slap together a pretty powerful system for like $800 these days. I'll do a little shopping in a second and post the result here.
EDIT - Ok, I think you can get a rocking system for emulation for $800. This is a rough budget.
Core i5 CPU - $200
Motherboard - $100 (you could go cheaper)
HDD - 1 TB is abotu $80 today
GPU - $150 (choose your flavor in this range - I think a Nvidia GTX 560 falls here today)
RAM - 8 GB for $40
Case - Nothing fancy for $30
PSU - $50 (I wouldn't go cheaper here)
Misc Tax / Shipping, depending on where you are - $100
Considering I spend more than that on my driving cabinet so far without spending a penny on the computer...
Anyone running them on a PS2 emulator?
Unfortunately, my driving cabinet is back to the 8800GT for the moment. So testing it with will have mixed results - I'd be happy to do it though. (I can test them on the i5 / GTX 460 too to give you an idea of the difference)
What games were you talking about specifically that you'd like me to track down and test for you?