It won't build without it on i686. It is not a library, but end-user
application, so it won't break anything else. It seems safe to assume
that no one with older CPU would use it.
diff -dur Ardour-5.4.0.orig/wscript Ardour-5.4.0/wscript
--- Ardour-5.4.0.orig/wscript 2016-10-11 21:55:23.000000000 +0200
+++ Ardour-5.4.0/wscript 2016-10-11 21:56:20.000000000 +0200
-@@ -439,7 +439,7 @@
+@@ -439,7 +439,9 @@
compiler_flags.append ("-DARCH_X86")
- if platform == 'linux' :
++ build_host_supports_sse = True
++ compiler_flags.append ("-mmmx")
+ if False :
#