[Wine] Wine: Configuration, Downloading, and Installing for absolute beginners? Help, anyone?

[jesuslovinmovienurd at yahoo.com]

Okay, I know absolutely jack about jack, and it will probably show when
I ask my first questions.  I have managed to download and install Wine,
as well as run winecfg.  However, I'm not sure just *how much*
configuration needs to be done.  The User's Manual made it seem as
though a lot of it was optional, though I'm not at all sure, and some
of it is quite daunting to somone who just barely learned how to
install programs in Ubuntu's Synaptic, much less use the terminal.

After compilation (I've done a bit already, but am not sure I did
enough, or even got it right), we get into the actual downloading and
installation of software.  The user's manual says "...install
applications into Wine in the same way you would in Windows: by running
the installer."  But which one?  Where?  HOW?  Not to mention, should I
download my .exe files anywhere special?

Specifically, I'm trying to get Monkey's Audio so that I can decompress
some .ape files I had saved to a disk before my computer blew up.

Help?

-Tim