It's very easy to convert LAZPoints, to XParticles. this gives you the ability to animate, and take advantage of rendering alternatives.
1. Make sure you are not on frame 0
2. Set LAZPoint to Generate XParticles
3. Set the Xparticle state. (At this point, you can delete LAZpoint, and you have a regular XP emitter.)
4. Add an XParticle Material to the XParticle emitter.
5. hit render...
you are now basically free, to do whatever you want to, in XParticles.
XP support was improved in R2.