Anyone know about firewire audio interfaces?

I have a firewire card and an M-audio Firewire 410 audio interface-both uninstalled at the moment (for recording guitar, bass, vocals, etc.) A friend told me that in order for this arrangement to work, I must physically remove my sound card, and the interface will act as a sound card instead.

The info with the interface says nothing about this. I am asking because my sound card recently crashed after updating Windows XP but if my interface will replace the sound card, no need to worry about fixing it and I can hop on over to the "Drivers" section of the forums and tell them "never mind!".....(I posted to the drivers thread since I know the sound card prob was caused by a C media driver but if this hardware will fix the prob than great for me)

Does anyone know about musical audio interfaces? Specifically the Firewire 410? I know it's a long shot.....Help is appreciated.

Using a Prescott-powered Intel P 4 with 2.88 MhZ
1 GB RAM, WD 320 HD, ECS 865 PE-A Mobo