Midiman (M-Audio) Soundcards, i'm thinking of buying one. A few questions tho........ Options

[BoomBoom]

1. On the Midiman site they boast 'zero latency monitoring'. Does that mean I can record, say guitar, into the hard drive,  apply vst effects and monitor it all without latency?

Similarly, would i be able to play virtual instruments without latency? (btw I am using a G4 533MP)

2. They also state, rather vaguely, that the card will 'Maximiz(e) performance of soft synths and samplers such as GigaStudio and Reason'
Is there any hardware acceleration going on here?

3. When deciding between this and the Audiophile card, the main difference (apart from different in-out config) is that with the Audiophile card the inputs are unbalanced.

How important is this? Would it be impossible to get professional results with unbalanced inputs?

Thanks in advance for any pearls of wisdom.