Basically, EVE Online will only need one extra thing: Windows XP Service Pack 2, at least. So this means that only users running Service Pack 1 will be affected, and I do tend to believe that CCP is right and just 0.4% of the Windows owners are still running SP1. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that you’ll have to buy new hardware to play the game.
On the brighter side, since 8.8% of the game’s characters are already playing under Windows 7 (and it is expected for the numbers to grow once the full version of Windows 7 is released), Eve Online will offer official Windows 7 support with the release of Dominion.