So Hyper-V Server 2008 is available for download right now. It’s free. A free “bare-metal” hypervisor. Why does that sound familiar? Anyway, of course the proof is in the pudding, so download it and try it. Remember you need an x64 capable machine to do. You will have to see if it is any good for yourself but here are some specifics to get you started: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a simplified and optimized stand-alone server virtualization product:

• It contains just the Windows hypervisor and other kernel components to support virtualization. Since Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is built on the Windows hypervisor, it has an inherently more secure architecture with no third-party device drivers in it.
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a separate stand-alone product. Customers cannot upgrade from a previous version of Windows Server to Microsoft Hyper-V Server. Customers cannot upgrade from Microsoft Hyper-V Server to Windows Server 2008 as they are different products. To migrate from a Microsoft Hyper-V Server environment to a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment, export the virtual machines from Hyper-V Server, install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, enable the Hyper-V role and import the virtual machines.
• Hyper-V Server supports systems with up to 4 processors with 1, 2 or 4 cores. 
• Hyper-V Server supports up to 32 GB of physical memory.
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server includes virtual machine snapshot capabilities.

More information here .

Download Hyper-V Server 2008 for free.