Its a beta version of messenger you are using of course it will have its performance issues. That's why its called a beta. Any performance issues would obviously be more noticeable on an older computer, so if you have a fairly older computer then yeah that is your problem.
If you can't stand the lag then go back to the latest stable version of Messenger. Which at the moment is 8.5.
You can get it from
http://get.live.com/