[frenchy2k1]

There is no need for any audio on the motherboard for those to work.

Audio processing has 2 big parts:
- digital processing (the part with the computation and eventually all the fancy effects like 3D audio, EAX...)
- analog signal conversion.

If you use a card like the radeon HD4000+ or nvidia G200+, they just placed a digital signal processor on the card to process the 1st part on board and there is absolutely no need for the 2nd part, as HDMI signals are digital all the way.

The processing is usually done with a realtek chip placed on the video card.

So, no need to worry, it will work without any MB audio. It just adds a full sound card to your system typically, that can be chosen as output under windows.

Since microsoft forced CPU audio calculation under Vista and 7, there is not much gain in a creative lab card anymore...