Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook cardbus pcmcia with Thinkpads

[red bioroid]

For those who bought this card:

I am thinking of getting the Creative lab card for my Thinkpad 240x (Pe-500, 192MB ram , and stereo internal chip). My 240x laptop is rated for the audio at 20bit digital\audio and 18bit stereo audio\stereo using a Crystal, ESS brand\some brand audio chip I don't recall. The Creative lab card is rated 24bit\ 196khz. I don't know much about the audio terms. Anyways...
I want to use my Plantronic audio headset to hook up with the Creative card. The current configuration sounds fine but I might want to upgrade to a digital headset with more features in the future or a 5.1 speakers. My questions are

1. Will I see an improvement in sound quality using the regular headsets I have and with existing 2.1 speakers?

2. When I play Winamp (<3% CPU utilization) or Media player or the creative lab software player, will the CPU utilization rate go down or won't be a factor in playing my MP3s and other audio files? Currently, my sound goes muff\jerky when I run an intensive software. I don't want the sound card to cause the CPU too heat up the laptop or\and start spinning its noisy cooling fan.

3. Will I get Performance mode or Standard mode from my Creative card on my 240x?

Thanks....