I'm planning to purchase a sound card as I've grown tired with all the hissing present in the signal from my integrated sound chip and I'd like to have a microphone port to be able to start using Skype. I've set my eyes on the Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Value (bulk), which I could get for 42€. ($50 USD)
This card, however, is not specifically listed in the list of supported sound cards by alsa-project.org, and I am wondering whether I should go and pay 14€ ($17 USD) extra for the next option, an Audigy 4 (bulk) (This is the version that comes without the front panel. Oddly enough it's cheaper than a bulk Audigy 2 ZS.) to be sure to have proper driver support in Linux.

So how is it, would I get proper microphone support etc. if i bought the Audigy 2 Value or should I throw in more cash for the Audigy 4? Or scratch both and buy an Audigy 2 ZS for 65€ ($77 USD) (23€ more than the Audigy 2 Value and 9€ more than an Audigy 4)?

I'm unsure if this is relevant, but anyway, my distro is Fedora Core 4.

I've got the Audigy 2 SE (OEM) and it works fine - I'm using Fedora Core 4. In general I would expect that most Audigy cards should be supported with the common distros.

I'd second that. Audigy 2 OEM working fine under Debian

Yes

Thank you.

I'have bought an Audigy 4 yesterday and it is not working under linux yet. Alsa (1.0.10rc2) sees it as an audigy 2 value.

Last week I bought an Audigy 4 oem card. The way I got it to work was to install ubuntu 6.10 development snapshot, then apply this fix:"www ubuntuguide org/#configuresoundproperly" to get sound working in Gnome.
Then I did this fix:"www linuxquestions org/questions/showthread.php?t=337513" to get the card working.

All that remains to do now is to get it working in a stable release.
Oh, and to make some more posts so I can post normal links :-(