Recordings with microphone are too fast and distorted - pitch is correct

I have a new motherboard and all on a computer that was near a big lightning strike last April. I tried recording some stuff just a bit ago using a Logitech stereo (I think) mike that plugs into the sound card. I've used Sound Recorder, LP Recorder, and Audacity, all to the same result - the resulting WAV file plays back and the speaking is too fast and has some distortion - I assume some of the digital information has been omitted.

The mobo is an ECS GF6100-M754 with an AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Not using onboard sound - I think because I wanted a MIDI port. Not sure now - I think the card is a Diamond Xtreme XS51

I do have Sophos antivirus on the desktop - saw that sometimes an AV can cause this - have the same AV on a thinkpad - no problem there.

Someone here said there is some kind of (clock) fix for Athlon 64 bit CPUs and XP - but I could not find it.

So I will appreciate help on this - I might take the sound card off and try the on-board sound.

I also have a Xitel INport - very cool - converts from 1/4 inch RCA to USB through an opto-isolated AD converter - very clean. I could hook a keyboard mixer output to that and see if it works - that bypasses the sound card completely.

Might try a USB microphone, as well.

Thx
Vern