Abit AT7 Max2 question

I have 2 questiosn regarding this motherboard that I would love to have answered.

Firstly does it support athlon 2600 333 FSB thoroughbread core cpus ?

The website says it has support for :

AMD SocketA AthlonXP up to 2800+
AMD SocketA AthlonXP(Barton core) up to 3000+

Its not a Barton CPU and there are 2 types of 2600+ Cpu's (thunderbird and thoroughbread?) , im not sure wether the thoroughbread is covered by the above.

Secondly, it has an AC97 on baord 6 channel sound system, hwoever a coupel of games have been telling me that it has no ahrdware channels availalbe, and directx says the same thing. Is this important? Im also trying to update the drivers on it but the abit website is about as helpful as a slap in the face and my google search reveals hundreds of sites, with hundreds of drivers for different platforms and most of these appear to be drivers built by individuals rather than companies, has anyone got any advice on how I should go about updating the drivers on this sound system?

Thanks.