Any recent motherboard that supports a Core2Duo processor likely has a HD Realtek sound card built in to it. The recent Azalia chip line is actually a very nice piece of hardware. If you have a Core2Duo, using the built in sound card is just as good as using a "gaming" grade sound card. The new processors are more then capable of handling the sound load now -- rendering most slot cards redundant.
That said, if you are doing professional audio rendering, you need a professional sound card. Though even that is being considered pointless since the software can handle everything that hardware used to be able to do.
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