I didn't try to. Before I got the AWE32 to work in DOS, I gave up hope and bought an Audigy 2 ZS. For me, Audigy 2 is actually better than AWE32 even for DOS games running in Windows because then you can load massive SoundFont banks, while AWE32 is limited to 28 MiB. I just looked at the loaded sound drivers in Device Manager, but don't see anything for the AWE32. Either Win98 doesn't install them by default, or you can't load 2 sound drivers at once.

Eventually, I might find some games that sound best with the OPL's FM synthesis.

I bought some AWE32s recently and I'm experiencing this same issue. I have a CT3780 with an EMU8K labeled CT1971 that gets very hot. But on my CT3910 where the EMU8K is labeled CT1971-TBQ it barely even gets warm.

Does anyone have an AWE32 to compare and help gather more data?

Even after simply having the CT3780 inserted and booting into DOS but not initializing the card or playing any music, the chip will slowly become hotter and hotter. After about a minute it becomes extremely hot to the touch. It otherwise works fine in testing with diagnose.exe and Duke Nukem 3D.

Early versions do get hot, only the last version does not. These chips should be heatsinked to increase longetivity.