Icons are the pictures on the files (often whatever icon they have will tell you which mp3 player encoded them.) By 9.6 I presume you mean 8.6. Your method simply might not always work. If you intend to burn them to cd (not mp3 disk I presume), then at some stage they'll need to be converted to aiff. Toast can do that. However, there's some types of mp3's Toast simply can't recognise. Which gets back to perhaps getting a hold of some mp3 utility that can convert them outside of Toast (if Toast can't do it.)
(By the way I'm on a dialup so things are slow, I was still editing my post when you responded.)
New mp3 types of encoding have been coming out & developing faster than Toast & others can keep up (plus I think some mp3 types have exclusive rights.)
If Java is not giving your LW any problems then if you're happy with OS 8.6, then stick with it. As for mp3 players for 8.6, MP3 Rage will work. And Audion 2.6.2 works from os8.5 up. You know don't you Audion is one of the xtras that Roxio offers. iTunes needs at least os9. See if you can get a hold of Audion & use it to convert to aiff those mp3's that don't work in Roxio Toast.