ASUS A7V8X-MX SE Motherboard

[Anthropos]

I have installed Fedora Core 3 on the subject motherboard.  During the 
reboot after installation, the sound system is tested.  At this time, I 
heard the right channel, left channel, and both channels at normal volumes 
and, therefore, I clicked 'yes' to the question asking if I had heard the 
sound.

After logging in as 'root', I have to turn the volume to 100% and the PCM to 
100% in the software settings and I have to turn the volume knob on the 
speakers to 100% to hear sound.  What happened?...

The MB has an AD1980 device (AC'97 SoundMax) that is recognized as a VIA 
8235.