I would guess the 140 distributors (078, 099) are as good or better than the 003, 009. If you leave the vacuum disconnected, there's no reason to think they wouldn't be just fine. If you set the timing up just right, the vacuum retard can be used just as it was intended, though the general consensus is to leave it disconnected.
The 078 and 099 take the same points, etc. as the D-jet distributors, which is just as easy to deal with as the 007 (see earlier post). They won't, however, take the same Pertronix for reasons I can't remember. You may know the difficulty in getting the points mounted *just right* to the screw on the 003 and 009 (+ 002).

The availability of new Mallory dizzy's (through IPD) pre-dates my Volvoing, so I really don't know anything about them. A friend and I tried to tune one up back in the early days (when I really shouldn't have owned any wrenches:o) but opted for swapping to a Bosch, and the car ran much better.
If you go with the Mallory, you may want to cruise the web for availability of cap, rotor, etc.

Best,
Shayne.