Delay in sound on Linux

How come there is a delay in the sound comming out of the speakers of my computer? when I play some music it takes a second before the sound comes out and when I stop it, it plays for another second afterward. It also happens when I play flash games on this site. when I do something like fire a weapon it takes a second before i hear "bang" About my soundcard; it is connected to my motherboard and in the hardware browser it says I have a VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller.