followed instructions on gentoo's website to installed alsa sound.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml However the sound is still not working. Tried the mic output as some websites mentioned.
Some of the system outputs are below. All suggestions are appreciated.

lspci output is:
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

dmesg output is:
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:1f.5 disabled
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
AC'97 0 analog subsections not ready
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 52123 usecs
intel8x0: measured clock 211 rejected
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:1f.5 disabled
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
AC'97 0 analog subsections not ready
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 52140 usecs
intel8x0: measured clock 210 rejected
intel8x0: clocking to 48000

lsmod is:
Module Size Used by
snd_seq 41936 0
snd_seq_device 6156 1 snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 32672 0
snd_mixer_oss 13184 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_intel8x0 27548 0
snd_ac97_codec 90016 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm 57608 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 18436 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 41636 8 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc 7432 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
ac97_bus 1536 1 snd_ac97_codec
soundcore 5856 1 snd

cat /proc/asound/version:
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.16rc2 (Thu Jan 31 16:40:16 2008 UTC).

cat /proc/asound/cards:
0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1980 at irq 17

What desktop environment or window manager are you using? Also, did you make sure that you have enabled the appropriate Intel codec inside of your kernel? What options do you see when you run alsamixer?

Try alsamixer, if it runs your card is being handled correctly. Look that the relevant channels are not zeroed or muted.

What did you try and what doesn't work? Does "play" from command line work?

pgb205,

Your lsmod looks good. Run alsamixer and unmute only Master and PCM, set their sliders to about 70% and test.