Fogold,
Actually, you are correct. There are no issues in AH with Nforce onboard sound. My surround speakers sound excellent and I never get CTD, lockups or BSOD. My AH voice never gives me any problem and I only have to set mic volume to half. As far as I know, only MSI used the Nforce sound chip on the Nforce 1's and the others were a third party. You have to check with Nforce 2 because Asus, for example, uses third party on their standard Nforce 2 board but the Nforce chip on the deluxe model.
Corky,
I think the best video card bang for $ is Geforce 4 4200. Some of the new 9xxx series ATI cards may be worth checking, also. Most people use SB Live seies, Turtle Beach or Hercules sound cards. Some have problems with all the above. I use a cheap SB Live Value with my Asus Nforce box with no trouble. If you use XP OS it is best to use Native drivers instead of ones at Creative.
BTW this thread belongs in the Hardware/Software section.