My Zookeeper MAME

[shirkle]

I just picked up an empty Zookeeper cabinet that had been painted over.  My goal is to restore it cosmetically, and run MAME in it.  I'd like to have it so that MAME is dedicated only to Zookeeper to keep it more original.
I have 7 arcade games, but no MAMEs, so I need some help.

I'm planning on using an old Pentium II computer and an older arcade monitor that I pulled from a nonworking game.   I have an IPAC and plan on using it. I also would like to slice a computer monitor cable into an arcade monitor connector. 
Keeping these things in mind, here are my questions:
1.  I want short as possible boot-up time.  Would using a Compact Flash card to replace the harddrive save me some time? 
2.  What version of MAME or front end is recommended for the video wiring that I described?

[KDOG]

I would recommend  reading though this site http://www.mameworld.net/dosmame/.
Since you are using an older computer.

[MaMeNnO]

That CF card on an old computer is much slower then a harddrive.