I just want to make sure of something before I go home and do it. Here goes.

Directx and Directdraw are not functioning correctly, because my sound card isn't installed yet, so when I install the card, directx and directdraw should work properly right?

Upon booting diablo2, error message pops up saying it cannot initialize direct draw, and cannot detect directx, even though it is on there.

Just in case, my system specs:

Win 95
directx 6.0
crystal pnp audio

Try unistalling direct x then reinstalling it now that sound card is in..

I'm not trying to be rude, honest. It's time to upgrade!

it's almost impossible to uninstall DirectX but you can try installing it over. also try updating or re-installing your video drivers.

I don't think a soundcard will have any effect on direct draw as it's a routine for graphics, not sound. Win 95 tended to corrupt the registry and you may be better off re-installing windows, drivers (latest), direct x (higest available for Win95) and applications(don't forget to backup important data, like addressbooks, bookmarks, documents, etc). Your problems appear to be the result of a registry corruption problem.