I'm sorry, I don't understand: I thought that using the on-board sound degraded system performance slightly because of increased CPU utilization.
I guess what I'm asking is: is there a noticeable difference in FPS when playing 3d games, between using native vs add-on sound cards?
(FYI: my system is a Barton 2.5/1 Gb PC3200 Crucial/ ATI 9600 Pro, all at stock speeds.)