From these two, I would definitely choose the clone. With 386, you really want good OPL sound, and AWE64 is a disaster in that regard. On the other hand, that big "74LS631" chip on this Protac card is probably 100% OPL2 clone.

Isn't the Protac a Thunder Board clone ?

Have to agree with sledge, go for the SB 2.0 compatible clone sound card, the ideal scenario for AWE sound cards is between late-486 and Pentium III computers. The only consolation in this case is that reverb and chorus can be applied to the CQM FM synth thru AWEUTIL.

I'm also voting for the 8-bit card.
Games with AWE support are 1994+, like later versions of Doom/Doom II, runnable on a 386, but slow.

If you're an audiophile or fan of trucker music, use the AWE.
The EMU 8000 is supported by Impluse Tracker, so the CPU is freed from the task of mixing and up/down sampling.

The 8-Bit Soundblaster and the Thunderbird are neat for testing purposes, for best AdLib/OPL2 compatibility.
Don't throw the Protac away, please - it's rare and has extra DSP commands over SB 1.5/2.

The original 8-Bit Sound Blaster also have the correct PCM/FM volume ratio.

Clones don't, often. The Protac doesn't, either.

That's why a 16-Bit card with a programable mixer comes in handy.
It can fix the volume levels, balance them out.

The OPL3 also has 4-OP mode and isn't timing sensitive.
It may work better with EMM386 and other memory managers which cause timing hick ups.

Edit: MIDI music in Windows will also sound way better with a 16-Bit soundcard.

The 8-Bit cards don't have an MPU-401 MIDI interface, at all.
Merely SB-MIDI. The AWE has at least an emulated MPU-401.

And it can also simulate General MIDI and MT-32 via DOS utility.
So you can play Monkey Island with better music, for example.

Games like Mega Man X and Descent can use the AWE's EMU 8000 chip directly to play music.
Not sure how well these run on a fast 386, however.