<<As it stands now I am only running in the line in on the back of my dell....thats weak! >>
Yes, a good soundcard is essential. It will save you tons of conflict headaches and obviously will sound better and give you more options. Although some folks do ok with the Soundblaster and Audigy stuff, I personally would avoid these and would go to something like the Echo Mia, Gina, or the Layla if you can afford it. The Maudio cards are good too but from what I read on these forums, they have more driver issues than Echo's products.
Hi drban
I agree, I have a old Darla 20 that's alive and still kicking on a P3 8000
Im running Vegas Video 3.0c, Sound Forge 6.0b, Acid 4.0a and a bunch of DXi/VSTi and I have NEVER had a single problem out of it. I love the MOTU gear too but I did have some problems with the Waves 2.8 dongle key and MOTU audio.