There are no ISA sound cards that will work 'fine' on a Pentium 3 AND require -5V so you are fine there.

Regardless, if you really want a card that does EVERYTHING you probably want the One Card To Rule Them All but as far as I know it is no longer in stock or made, so you will have to settle for their Newer Offering.

If you are willing to accept compromises:

Sound Blaster AWE64: Pros: Has a good sound floor, onboard AWE synthesis and a working MPU401, SB16 Compatible, common (Value versions). Cons: No waveblaster header, CQM FM Synthesis, reversed channels or mono in SB Pro mode.
Sound Blaster AWE32: Pros: Onboard AWE synthesis, OPL3 FM Synthesis and a working MPU401, SB16 Compatible. Cons: Average sound floor, reversed channels or mono in SB Pro mode, expensive/uncommon.
CS4232/4237 Cards: Pros: Common, Highly SB Pro Compatible, WSS compatible, a working MPU401. Cons: Build quality varies wildly (some OEM cards are hot garbage while some of the best ISA cards like Terratec Maestro 32/96 & 16/95 use these chipsets), Crystal FM Synthesis sounds different from OPL3 FM Synthesis (matter of taste).
ES1688/1868 Cards: Pros: Common, Highly SB Pro Compatible, WSS compatible, a working MPU401, ESFM sounds nearly equivalent to OPL3 FM Synthesis. Cons: Build quality varies wildly (Some like the Terratec Gold 16 are amazing, most are average to poor).
YMF 71x Cards: Pros: Highly SB Pro Compatible, WSS compatible, a working MPU401, OPL3 FM Synthesis, a working MPU401. Cons: Uncommon, Build quality varies (try finding cards with dual crystals and a good filtering circuit).
CMI8330 Cards: Highly SB Pro & SB16 Compatible, WSS compatible, a working MPU401, OPL3 FM Synthesis, a working MPU401, digital audio out. Cons: Uncommon, Build quality is poor (chipset is great but was used on budget/oem cards).

As mentioned, you don't need -5V.
The real question is what exactly is desired. OPL3 music? Creative MIDI? General MIDI with a daughterboard? Or something else? To get started, I would recommend something "simple", like a Creative CT4180.
Highly compatible, also works on faster PCs, and sounds good. Otherwise I would have recommended an ESS1868F card, very good under DOS, but there are problems with the WDM drivers in Windows 98, only very old Windows 95 VXD drivers work well. But every card has its limitations, there is no perfect card.*
*And no, I'm not interested in modern replicas. 😉

In my case, I use a Sound Blaster 16 paired with a Roland-licenced wavetable board for MIDI.

Be wary of the "hanging note bug" though, check the DSP revision to avoid it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_1 … ghterboard_bugs

You can buy wavetable boards and other MIDI accessories from Serdashop, I advise the X2GS if you don't plan to swap soundfont banks from a licensed Roland one. https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE

Here's my "all-in-one" suggestion:

1. CMI8330 based soundcard with wavetable header (to use 2.)
For DOS gaming you have all possibilities from Adlib, SB, SB Pro up to SB16.

2. Daughterboard WP32 McCake
https://www.serdashop.com/WP32-McCake

The WP32 has 2 modes: GM and MT-32 Emulation
This way you can choose Roland MT-32 or General Midi.

For MT-32 you can let it emulate MT-32 new model, old model or CM-32L. Depends on game which mode is best.
I never had a real MT-32 but the emulation is amazing. If a game supports MT-32 it's always a dream to hear the music.

For General Midi you can put lots of soundfonts on the microSD card and vary the sound this way.
If a game supports GM it's always a much better soundtrack than SB.

SB16 is best for sound effects. You can clearly hear the difference to older SB standards. 16-Bit sounds much cleaner.

Best of all:
In most games you can choose different sound cards for music + sound effects.
So you can have SB16 for outstanding sound effects and GM/MT-32 for great music.

In my system I additionally have a GUS PnP.
But it's mainly used for demoscene stuff. GUS soundtrack often sounds better than SB ones. But in most cases GM/MT-32 music is even better than the GUS one.

The GUS PnP is superior when it comes to sound effects for titles that support it. Very audible in DOOM for instance.

OmriSh wrote on 2024-05-16, 08:06:

I have Intel SE440BX-2 + Pentium 3 600Mhz, I want to use it for both DOS games (1990 and above) ...

Facing the same decision making process as you, I have already ruled out all SB16 and 32 models, as they all seem to give problems with earlier games digital sound effects. Sad but real.
Soundblaster 16/32 click noises in DOS (solved -> DMA clicking bug)

I went down that road myself, and my i486dx2 has 4 sound cards. SB16, GUS PnP, LAPC-I and SCC-1 in addition to SC-55 and MT-32 rev 0.