I never experienced any hickups.
I've been using Lubuntu linux and the Wahcade (Mahcade) frontend from the beginning, some five years ago, always using the default kernel.
I recently switched to Linux Mint xfce, mainly because it was getting increasingly more difficult to get Daphne, the laserdisk emulator, to run on 64 bit Lubuntu.
It somehow works fine on Linux Mint 64 bit.
I tried Groovyarcade some time ago, but i prefer my own setup.