I dl'ed MAME32 and am using these settings, I'll just note what's different from default:
Gamma .85
DD Triple Buffering
Draw Every Frame
5:4 Aspect
Use D3D- Bilinear (either Auto or Dot Medium Bright depending), No Prescale
Switch Resolutions/Color Depths OFF
The games look pretty nice (though I'm certainly open to suggestions) on my laptop, it's a pretty new one but I certainly didn't expect to have problems with too much speed. First of all, Punch Out! The game seems too fast to me, I don't remember how it was in the arcade but I'm pretty sure the ref didn't count to five in all of 1.2 seconds. It's not "hyper-fast" (Throttling is on and every other default option is on), but it's just not the right speed it seems. Amazingly, I think even Street Fighter 2 CE is running fast. Being the nerd that I am, I timed their clock and it was running at about 1.5X my stopwatch. I checked the FPS and everything, and it's steady at 60/60 with no frame skips, but I don't think that's the right way to check speed.
Any suggestions? I haven't been able to find too much info about this problem online, it seems that most people have it the other way around which is at least somewhat easier to address (turn off sound, skip frames, etc.). I would try a different version, like a command line one, but I'm totally illiterate when it comes to that and I like the MAME32 GUI.
I'm also open to any suggestions on settings any of you may have. Thanks!