es1888 audio and PWS500au

My alpha has a built-in ES1888 sound card on its ISA bus.  Does anyone 
have one that works?

This old thread indicates that there are hardware problems:
http://osdir.com/ml/linux.ports.alpha/2008-03/msg00056.html

Alsa and the snd-es18xx modules load fine, the mixer works, nothing is 
muted, etc.  Trying a wav file with aplay gives some pcm error.

The obvious solution is to scare up a PCI sound card.  It would be nice 
if someone could tell me the built-in card works for them.

Adios,  DW