Now I love VMware ... but I think you chances of getting a dos session inside a windows session inside a VMware session, working good enough for DOS sound drivers, are slim to none ! ... however notwithstanding that, you can try all the following :-

Its bad enough getting DOS sound drivers working in 98, never mind with that 'inside' something else, my advice at this point if you wish to 'persist' is to try 'whatever' on just a 98 client first ...

I think soundmax integrated usually have a bios setting called 'enable soundblaster 16' or similar, this actually makes bios create another device which the DOS session can get 'hold of' directly rather than windoze 'stealing it' from DOS, this is what you 'generally' need working for DOS games.