Sound Cards?, so many...so little time Options

Hi. I don't know about everyone else, but it seems that in order for me to choose a sound card I will need to clear my schedule for the next ten years. There seems to be so many and it is rather overwhelming to sort them all out. I was hoping that somebody somewhere might have some experience in this department to help me sort this out.
I suppose I should say that I would like to run an intrument into it with a 1/4 interface, my powered monitors, headphone out would be nice too... into my new G4(9.2). Or, as I have read, i guess they can have midi interfaces? Would I then need a seperate box to plug instruments into and then into the card? PCI? Oh god...

Any info/help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks