LMHOSTS is a file that consists of ip addresses and netbios names.
When you connected to a computer or website, if LMHOSTS is enabled, it will check this file to see if there is an entry for that computer and use the IP address found in this file. If there is no LMHOSTS file it will usually use DNS or WINS.
It really doesn't make any difference if it is enabled or not, because if you don't have the file it will use DNS/WINS.