From my memory, AC97 was rough early on. It seemed to be consistently plagued with crosstalk and other interference issues as well as driver issues. By the time WinXP dropped these issues were mostly sorted out, though.
I don't remember too much interference, but then I've never had excellent hearing. Driver issues were definitely a thing but I think that same period around 2000 is when games are shifting from "(Most games work in DOS but) Some games need Windows" to "Some games still need DOS". AC97 was not great for DOS
Looks like my memory is wrong, all of the DOS games I was thinking of "from this era" are late 90s. Carmageddon for example was 1997. Quake 2 was never officially a DOS game. Nothing I bought new in 2000 was primarily or only a DOS game.
