When should I stop upgrading MAME?

[headkaze]

I don't get to play on my cab much these days but I do like to keep MAME up to date on it. The thing is with 64-bit and Dual/Quad core CPU's my cab PC is starting to look a bit long in the tooth. It's a P4 3Ghz with 1gig RAM running XP 32.

For those who play MAME alot, I'm going to assume that someday some games will start running slower in the newer versions than the older ones. With a single core 32 bit machine anyway.

So what version of MAME/ROM set should I keep updating to, or is it currently fine to upgrate to the latest version with a PC like mine? I don't want to upgrade and then to my horror find my favourite games running slower. I don't plan on updating my cab's pc in the near future.

[MKChamp]

Hey headkaze,
We both have the exact same setup on our cabs. I keep updating to the latest because I figure that 'one day' I will upgrade the PC in my cab if/when the new versions of MAME either make the roms so slow they are unplayable or the new versions of MAME start making the majority of once unplayable games playable on a 64 bit OS running duo processors. I know it already does to some extent.
At any rate, when I do upgrade to a better PC, I don't want the hassle of updating the romset from an older version of MAME to match the newer...so I always update my MAME at every version so the change in the romset is manageable. SO...when I do get a new PC, everything MAME related with be the latest.