Recommendations for emulation setup

Hi everyone,

I am currently thinking about adding game console emulation to my living room HTPC. I have planned to build a MAME arcade for some years now, even planned the cabinet already and built the necessary USB adapters for legacy gamepads, since I don't have the time currently I won't be finishing it any time soon.

For a quick game of old NES games I'd really try to use the HTPC for now, starting with 2 XBOX 360 controllers (I do have the Windows BT adapter).

So, I just wanted to ask if anyone could give me some advice on the following points (I am trying to achieve a good implementation with XBMC):

- What do I use to start the games (ROM Collection Browser?)
- Do people prefer to use single emulators (ZSNES, etc...) for each system or multi-emulators (like Mednafen). I tend towards Mednafen because it would minimize the programs needed, no experience though with that program yet...
- Do these emulators have problems loading the rom data from an SMB share, that is not mounted (accessing these through a network path)
- Anything else I shoudl be thinking about?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

thanks

taalas