Fit inside the box, or stretch to it
With 'Maintain aspect ratio' on, each image is scaled to fit inside the width and height you enter. With it off, each one is stretched to exactly those dimensions.
Leave it on unless you have a specific reason not to. Stretching a portrait photo into a landscape box distorts faces in a way that is immediately obvious, and no later step can undo it. Fitting instead means the output dimensions vary with each picture's shape — a wide photo hits the width limit, a tall one hits the height — which is usually what people actually want when they say they need everything 'the same size'.