Here are "legal" specifications of Philips AE shown below.

• 256* DirectSound streams
• 96* DirectSound 3D streams using QSound® Q3D 2.0
• Full-duplex, 48khz digital recording and playback
• 64 hardware sample rate conversion channels up to 48khz
• EAX 1.0 and 2.0
• A3D 1.0 (only in Windows 9x/ME not Windows 2000)
• 2, 4 and 5.1 Speaker support for DVDs and DirectSound applications/games
• Special effects can be applied to any audio input containing conversion of stereo to quadraphonic or 5.1 output, QXpander, 2D-to-3D remapping and reverb
• QXpander ™ and "2D to 3D remapping" for 3D enhancement of stereo playback
• QSurround ™ virtual 5.1 playback of DVDs using 2 speakers
• Up to 576 total wavetable synthesis voices
• 64 channel hardware CD quality (16 bit, 44.1khz) wavetable synthesizer with 5.9MB sample set
• Hardware FM Synthesizer (real mode DOS)
• 512 voice professional quality soft-synth with XG and GM compatibility (bundles Yamaha's XG50 Software Synthesizer.)
• Wavetable and FM Synthesis
• Digital S/PDIF output (stereo, AC3 or DTS signal)
• Digital S/PDIF input
• MIDI in/Midi out/dual game port
• Additional external inputs: Line in, Mic in
• Additional internal inputs: CD in, Aux in, TAD in, S/PDIF in
• Legacy game audio support with SoundBlaster™ Pro
We can notice this card packs rather a hit. Also it should for its price range. I would also like to state the card supports EAX 1.0 and EAX 2.0 using QSound environmental modeling.