If you really must put on a carbon fork, the best option would be a Wound Up composite fork. They will do a steel threaded 1-inch steerer for you so you can use your original headset if desired.
Close 2nd would be a 1" Columbus carbon fork. These are very nice. You'll have to change the headset to a 1" threadless because these only come in threadless (I used a 1" threadless Cane Creek 100 when I did a similar conversion on a 90s Litespeed).
If you want my true opinion, it's leave the steel fork on there. Whatever "absorptive" properties carbon has I really highly doubt it will make a perceptible difference in ride quality. Pretty much marketing speak. I've never noticed being any more comfortable on the 3 carbon forks I've had (a Wound Up with steel steerer, a Columbus with full carbon steerer, and a Salsa with alloy steerer).
The rest of it should be compatible with modern components. Make sure your rear dropout spacing is at least 126mm if you want to use a new 130mm cassette hub. A 1984 bike might have narrower spacing and need to be spread. You will probably also have brake mounting holes for nutted brakes instead of recessed nut, so that will also need to be changed if you want to use modern brakes, unless you get a Tektro with nutted mounting.