Adblockers

Are adblockers considered anti-malware software and do they actually block malware? One of the reasons I like and use Iron is because, not only does it have it's own adblock, but I can copy/paste fanboys adblock list in it. My XP-system use to get hit with a lot of malware before I got a router, Sandboxie and started using Iron with fanboys adblock list and am not sure if the adblock is a contributing factor.