rolling boil vs not?

Hi everyone, I have done about 5 brews since I started brewing. My question is about how important a having a rolling boil when you add the hops and whatnot. I made a great ipa that I want to replicate as close as I can, but while doing that brew i wasnt able to get a rolling boil until like the last 5 minutes (i tried to boil too much water)

Would having a rollin boil going change the flavor much? and what exactly is the importance of having a rolling boil?

It's more important with AG brewing than extract, IMHO. With AG, it drives off DMS and also leads to a clearer beer (generally).

I would agree that the rolling boil is more important for AG, for the reasons waldoar said, but I imagine that not getting a good boil going would affect an extract brew as well. I would think the hop utilization would be different. You also mentioned that you wanted to replicate an earlier recipe... since this time you used more water in the boil and had a different process, it probably won't turn out the same. It still may turn out very good, but it will probably be a noticeably different beer from your last one. Are you using a gas or electric stove?