Tie Fighter and Quest For Glory 4 both sounded impressive on the AWE-32 using the standard sample set.
Games that used opl sound effects: tended to sound better on SB16 mode
Music/sound seperated: usually GM emulation/ SB16 hybrid sounded better
OPL music backed by digital sound (example: drums would play on the digital PCM channel like on Battledrome): SB16
AWE32 native: awe32 usually preferred. Some games had the above case sounded better yet allowed you to use the awe32.
"Also, games that used the AWE32's EMU chip for sound usually didn't do a good job anyways"
I had a hard time trying to phrase the above line. You know on some games you'll do something like slash and it'd be rendered through the adlib-like (OPL) synthesizer? Those sometimes sound horrible on GM.
However, I think the AWE32 was designed for game synthesis and on some games, it sounded incredible, even sometimes better than the mt-32. It would be a nice asset to emulate. The AWE32 did have some weird instruments though. The trumpet would sound either incredible or like you are strangling a cat. So, it could sound real horrible on some games but thankfully you can set it as an sb16 when it did.