Can android AVD emulator run within VMWare?
I've been able to run it in Windows 8.1 Pro within VM Ware 10. This was when I was used ADT though for eclipse. When I switched over to Android Studio I haven't been able to get a AVM to start yet. Granted I've spent about 30 minutes working on it, so I haven't exhausted all options just yet. 

I imagine speed will always be an issue though. While the overhead for windows within VW Ware Workstation is sleight given the shared architecture it's enough to introduce some slow downs. Still for the most part I've been able to use the AVM for my purposes. (Really just making sure the app can start and doesn't crash) from there I put it on a real device.