Recommandations on a new audio interface (possibly m-audio ProFire 2626) ?

I have still saved my Frontier Design Dakota for a brand new PC - after over 12 years of loyal service, it's still there...
 
But as there are issues under Win 7 (and it can fail at any time due to its age), I'm looking for a solution - hopefully 'external' to avoid depending on PCI or PCIe or anything related to the inside of a PC...
 
Oh yeah: and I want to keep my outboard mixer (Yamaha 02R v2) - with lightpipe connection.
 
I was told (here) that M-Audio Lightbridge was round trip latency.  What about the M-Audio Profire 2626 ?  (It's connecting to PC with only one Firewire cable). 
 
If any of you have a similar setup, what do you use ?  (I need two 8x8 ADAT optical, so 16 in x 16 out, plus S/PDIF and whatever can provided some gravy at a reasonnable cost - and can be standalone the day my mixing console dies....)
 
I've read and heard of RME card, but as written above: I want to avoid staying on the card-dependent setup.   I read about MOTU  823Mk3 but was told that 64bit drivers for Windows 7 are a PITA (which I don't doubt as I just tried yesterday to install their newer MIDI drivers on the MOTU MIDI Express 128 and switched back immediately to those relased in 2007 for Vista x64, as with the newer ones, Sonar was not even seeing the module...
 
Quad-Core (i7) 2.86, 8GB memory,
Frontier Design Dakota (PCI) lightpipe
Windows 7 x64, Sonar 8.5.3 (32 and 64 bit)
In search for the secret code to install X1.... (have to decide upon 32 or 64 or both....)
 
Thanks,
Robert