Pros: Excellent price/performance ratio. Expect high compatibility.
Cons: Does not offer the most advanced audiophile features.

Having worked at Creative Labs some years ago, I can tell you that this is today's bare-bones minimalist card. However, it performs all the basic functions that you'd expect from a sound card, and does them very well. It is comparable to the on-board sound that is placed on most motherboards.

Creative is still the very biggest name in Sound Cards. You can expect major current and future support of this card. As far as Windows goes, you can expect total support. If you use old legacy DOS programs (under Win98, for example), they include legacy drivers, and you can expect superior compatibility. My personal experience under Linux is that I had some trouble with the ALSA sound drivers (snd-es1371) but that the standard drivers (es1371) worked flawlessly.