there is xmame, lincade,and i thinck advancemame live cd version. xmame is based on fedora core 6. i am hoping lincade would build for zenwalk. zenwalk is very simple to install and use, not resource hungry as major distros. it is based on slackware.
i tried advanceCD before and was disappointed. but that was before i had a good understanding about mame. it is a good mame distro, as long as "parent" roms are loaded.