Older Mame with newer roms compatibility

[Tomodachi]

I'm trying to find out if an older MAME version will run the newer MAME roms. For example: I have roms for version 114. Will those roms work on say MAME version 1.0, .98, .89. etc.?  Is there a cut off where it will work on some older MAME versions, but only to a certain point?

I have a spare PC (PIII, 500mhz) that I would like to use for MAME, but I think I'll need to run an older version of MAME for best performance. I only have roms for version 114. I'd like to be able to use these instead of hunting down older versions of these roms.

[lokki]

You should be able to use clrmame to downgrade your roms to work on a previous version.

http://www.clrmame.com/

Guide on how to use it
http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/clrmameguide.htm

[Tomodachi]

Thanks alot!

[Tiger-Heli]

Backup your 0.114 set first, though!!!

[WLVRYN]

Would this work for Tempest?  I cant seem to get that ROM to work with MAME .111.  I guess there's a file missing in the ROM that I have, but I cant seem to find a ROM that has the entire file set or just the missing the file on its own.

[Zeppo]

Good to know.
I haven't had much luck with clrmame in the past, but I have been wanting to try older mame versions, so I'll try again.
Thanks for the info.