For best sound quality the soundcards need to be DirectX compatible and have at least 12 free hardware channels. Most Soundblaster cards and similar cards support this. Make sure you are using the latest drivers available. Here's a short list of the most common soundcard makers.
Soundblaster
Realtek
Cmedia
SoundMax

If you think your soundcard is causing problems (symptoms include problems logging into the game and crashes to desktop), you need to ensure that you have all the relevant windows updates and your soundcard drivers are up to date.

If you hear distortions while playing you can lower sound acceleration, although it isn't the best solution: Go to control panel, sounds and multimedia (or sounds and audio Devices in XP). On the Audio tab click the Advanced button in the Sound Playback section. Select the Performance tab and set the Hardware acceleration slider to None.

As a last resort, try disabling the in-game sound by pressing ESC and deselecting the Audio Enabled option under the audio tab in order to determine whether it is indeed your soundcard or its drivers which are causing the crashes.