> Will that not ruin all my roms if I update to the latest version? > Also will it mess up my maximus front end?
MAME have a full games list now. Plus you can load snapshot, dat file and some others.
You can try Maximus to see it can load the new MAME. I really don't know there will be a problem on loading it.
Depend on which ROM's sets need to be updated. I don't know which ones needed it. You can try the clrmamepro to see what is missing. http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/ I can't help you with the ROM's though. You search those on your own.
Edit: Forgot tell you that MAME have the MESS drivers included.