Honestly there is enough information out there about installing retropie or some other front end on a PC that the process is pretty easy and spelled out even for someone as tech stupid as me. Given the price vs performance of relatively old and cheap PCs vs a new pi or even a pi4 for that matter, if I had it to do over again I would just go the PC route especially after figuring out that what some people define as “acceptable” performance for emulators like dream cast and N64 is an entire galaxy removed from what I would consider even playable.
So really it all comes down to your specific needs.
If your trying to emulate simple games >25-30 years old then a pi3 or 3b+ should be able to do it and honestly there are even exceptions to that depending on the game.
If it’s after the last two decades just go PC.
But really, sit down and make a list of about 10-20 games that you basically can’t live without, research the hardware needs for them and go with the strongest one.