I found a solution that works for me for specific case of running Age of Empires 2 as asked in this thread
Age of Empires II The Conquerors Black Screen and Colors go to 8-Bit
you can go to task manager and end process tree vmware tools processes and preferable from services set them not to start once killed and you are good to go.
Mountain Lion 10.8.3 & Fusion 5.0.3 Windows XP SP3.