Okay, so I played with my CD version of Fate of Atlantis. I tried a CVS build of DOSBox with MT-32 turned on and the midi sounded no different. I then tried running ScummVM with MT-32 for the sound option and got an error message about missing a rom file. This leads me to believe the DOSBox trial probably defaulted back to the default setting when it couldn't find the same rom file and that's why it sounded the same.
However, in my tests of ScummVM it is only the Windows Midi option that sounds this good. All the other options sound like 1990's midi music and like I remember the game sounding really. So I think the good sound I'm getting now is simply a function of the midi built into Windows Vista.
Does it make sense that the DOSBox Win32 midi option would not tap into these sounds I'm hearing when using the Windows Midi option in ScummVM? If so, I guess that begs the question then, is there any way a version of DOSBox can be written that taps into the more modern midi sound available in Windows now?
Well, thanks for your help. I'm fine and happy playing my old DOS games with "old" sounding midi music. I mean, it's more authentic anyway and besides, if it wasn't for DOSBox, I wouldn't be able to play a lot of these games at all!