Hey guys,
Thanks for all the suggestions once again. I will state that I heavily considered a Yamaha YMF-724, based on a video HighTreason did regarding the card. I was actually very impressed with the quality of the WaveTable and FM synth.
That being said, I do not have an SB Link port on the Biostar motherboard that is arriving, and have decided to forego the Yamaha in lieu of an AWE64 Value. I settled with the Value model, since AWE64 Gold cards in any decent condition cost a fortune and aren't worth the bother for the price premium, especially since I will primarily use the card for DOS games in real DOS mode (which, from my understanding, doesn't even support software loadable synths anyway). I don't even intend to really take advantage of the loadable sample banks for the AWE-series cards and will simply stick with what's available stock. The 512KB built in should more than suffice for my needs. Finally, the motherboard is a MicroATX form factor, with slot availability at a rather high premium (I can only have three cards total installed at once) and I opted to shoot for a semi-different configuration than what the typical Vogons enthusaist might otherwise consider.
My final system specs are estimated to be as follows...
Biostar M6VLR MicroATX motherboard
1.4 GHz Pentium Tualatin (might swap out with a VIA C3 Nehemiah at a later date)
256 MB PC133 SDRAM
8 GB flash IDE module
Generic DVD/CD-RW IDE disc drive
Sony MPF920-Z/CU1 floppy drive
Nvidia GeForce4 MX4000 64MB DDR PCI video card
PPA International 2 Port SATA RAID + USB 2.0 + 1394 PCI combo card
Creative AWE64 Value ISA sound card
Rosewill R103A ATX Mid-tower case w/ 350W Rosewill PSU
Windows 98SE with unofficial service pack, KernelEx and other fixes
I think that should do mighty well for my needs. Should this VIA chipset on the motherboard do me any great dis-service, I might consider swapping it out with another Pentium III motherboard I ordered as a backup.
Retro PC: Intel Pentium III @ 1 GHz, Intel SE440BX-2, 32 GB IDE DOM, 384 MB SDRAM, DVD-ROM, 1.44 MB floppy, Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 4600 AGP, Creative SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold, Aureal Vortex 2
I only rely on 86box these days. My Pentium 3 PC died. 🙁