Place your zipped game files into the roms subfolder.
Finally, the practice of downloading old versions from third-party sites raises serious security and legal concerns. Unlike the official MAME website (which only hosts current versions), sites offering “MAME 32 old version download” are often abandonware repositories laden with pop-ups, adware, and potentially malicious executables. While the idea of software “abandonware” is ethically gray, downloading executable files from unvetted sources remains a practical risk to any PC.