I've got a 40Mhz '040 and I can play MP3 files at an acceptable quality on my SB128..... As long as I've got no other tasks running!
I've found that Paula is faster than my SB128 at playing MP3 files (in 8-bit modes), but whether that is down to me being crap at setting up the drivers and hardware, or whether I need a jucier processor I don't know.
Opinions are most welcome!