steve -
i\'ve had an xbox since release day, and have had it chipped since shortly after that.. i never added a 2nd hard drive, or upgraded the original (though i think it\'s a GREAT idea - faster load times, not having to load discs, etc) - i\'ve just never dabbled in it..
not sure what you mean by faster processor. AFAIK, you can\'t upgrade the xbox\'s processor.
while you\'ll be able to run MAME with a modded xbox, to take full advantage of MAME, you need a fast computer. you\'ll be able to play a LOT of games on X-MAME, but it\'ll lag on some of the newer games.
supposedly with the newer chips, you can turn them \'off\' if you want to go on XBL... can\'t do that with my chip (1st gen chip), but i don\'t use XBL and don\'t ever plan to..
but with a chip and a bigger HD, you\'ll be able to do more than just MAME - you can copy games to and play them off your hard drive, as i mentioned, and pretty much every system is emulated on the xbox.. oh, and you can play copied games too, not that i\'m condoning that.
http://www.xbox-scene.com^^ everything you need to know about xbox mods.
let me know if you have any more questions, and i\'ll see if i can answer them..
