Thanks for all the responses. Ih ave confirmed by installing XP on a different drive that the sound is not working on the new MB. I asked for a replacement. I did find something interesting. Here is the series of events:
1) Original MB was dead.
2) Replaced it with the ASUS MB. CMOS battery was dead.
3) No sound. Got tired of it keep asking me for settings each time I turned it off.
4) Installed new battery.
5) Booted once and tried to get the sound working. No luck so powered off.
6) New MB would not power on again. ( Just like the original MB. ) Only thing that was different.... New battery.
7) Removed the new CMOS battery. New MB boots again
Confirmed new MB has faulty sound by installing XP and Realtek drivers.
9) New idea... What if I try the battery removal trick with the original MB.
10) Guess what.... The original MB powers up when I removed the CMOS battery!
I do not know what this means in the grand scheme of things but I am going to complete the transition back to the original MB and see what happens.