You are mostly correct

Audigy 1 and earlier all use the same "aud_ext" front panel connector therefore the panels are all interchangeable. This is also the most common era of beige/white panel.

Audigy 2 and later use the "ad_ext" connector, panals are interchangeable but as far as I'm aware only the original Audigy 2 had a panel available in white (and hard to find) , after this it was always black.

The Audigy 2 Platinum came with an external bay that's silver so may match your build. You need the matching sound card as it uses a non standard cable (you can see the connector next to the fire-wire port here
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/creative … abs-audigy-2-zs

I'd think if keeping with the white requirement your best setup would be a Audigy 1 which will give you upto EAX 3 support with one of the original front panels.
This may be enough as not many games supported EAX 4 or 5
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_ … ith_EAX_support

This post goes into much more detail and includes the differences between the LiveDrive generations
Different versions of Live Drive?

I'm pretty sure all X-FI cards (the ones based on an EMU20K1 or derivative, not the "Extreme audio" variety ) have EAX 5.0 support . This includes the base launch model SB0460 .

EDIT: Careful with Dell and other OEM variant of the SB0460 as they have home some gimping/limitations that may require third party driver packs or an EEPROM reflash to bypass. These OEM cards have a serial number starting with something other tgan SB0460, AFAICR.

^ True, also "Game Mode" (a quirk from proper X-Fi sound cards) must be set for EAX 5.0 support. The other operating modes will just limit it to EAX 3.0.