It's actually a problem with both Amarok (1.3.7) and XMMS (1.2.10), it appears. I previously had the ability with SUSE 10 to play mp3 files in both apps, but I can no longer do this. I had noticed that I had only the aRtsd engine for amarok, so I (re)installed gstreamer-engine and others, but still cannot play mp3 files.
Just out of curiosity - have you tried Helix? I know it is a bad name around here, but that's what has been working for me. In fact, yesterday I upgraded from 1.3.1 to 1.3.7 and noticed that alsa and arts don't actually "play" mp3 files, but rather simply skip over them. Helix seems to work just fine for me. (It is also what was installed by default when I bought the new version.) -- kai ponte www.perfectreign.com linux - genuine windows replacement part