I normally store my music in Apple Lossless. Max does a fine job of VBR MP3 encoding. I then drag these converted files to Burnz for the burn to an MP3 (ISO9660) CD.
A nice addition to Max would be a preference that would automatically take the converted files and drop them into Burnz (or Toast or whatever other AppleScript-aware(?) burning app).
It's a time saver; that's all.
Thanks!