Thanks for all the replies! Seems I've got even more research ahead of me! Which isn't a bad thing. I'm quite new to the arcade building thing, read a lot of how to's, a few guides here and there. Its just that "Hey wouldn't it be cool to have an arcade cabinet in my home" bug that I'm guessing most of us have!
I was under the impression that video would be the main issue which the use of the video switcher would be a good start. (Not counting for Audio) But assuming the buttons are closely the same, and if I'm reading the diagram provided by opt2not correctly they are.
As for just running Neo Geo games in MAME, Call me old fashioned but I like carts! Also well there are some compatibility issues with a few Neo Geo games. Also this was a more of is this possible for down the road kinda thing as well.
First experiences in a community this one seems good. I'll be sticking around to learn some things!