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It is my understanding that, under Catholic Christian teaching, God is a being that "resides" outside of time. In order to understand the pre-christ people question, you have to think outside of what we perceive as time.
When we die, we lose our sense of time. We become, in a sense, more like God. So, if a person died before Christ's existence, or if this person is in "limbo", I suppose that there wouldn't really be a "before" and there would be no waiting since time is no longer a factor.
If this is hard to understand, think of it like this: Once we die, we're judged generally. *Right after*, (I use this phrase VERY LOOSELY since this idea is beyond our total comprehension) we are judged finally; a.k.a. the end of the cosmos sense of time. If you want to think of it in terms of time: Your grandmother who died thirteen years ago is now in existence with you, me, and everyone else who happens to be in this same place. Another example: if I were to die now, I'd be with everyone posting in this thread... provided that we all ended up in the same place.
When Jesus died for the sins of humanity, He effectively did just that. Everyone before Him and after Him were "saved" because in death, the perception of time is lost. I figure that every single human gets judged generally and finally because, once again, time is not a factor.
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