It’s possible your laptop has latency close to that of a “professional” audio interface. Microsoft made a lot of changes to its basic audio system over the years, and I’ve read claims that the Windows 10 WASAPI (Windows Audio Stack API) drivers can rival ASIO (which is the standard for all the pro interfaces).
Realtek, who makes the majority of the audio chips for Windows based laptops and desktops, also has various versions with ASIO drivers. So if you have a high end laptop and installed the Realtek drivers it’s possible you’re already on ASIO and won’t see much latency improvement going to an external interface.
Regarding USB 2 vs 3 vs. Thunderbird, you’re not going to get a material difference there. At least not unless you’re getting into the several thousand dollar class of interfaces that have more than 30 audio ins and outs.
I’ve benchmarked my own audio interfaces from RME, Focusrite, Prosonus, and MOTU over the years. Last time I did it was a couple years ago. The lower end drivers have improved a lot, and off the top of my head I believe there was only about 1 ms difference between the fastest (RME) and slowest (Focusrite). A 1ms difference is like sitting a foot further away from your speakers.
Whatever you buy, just make sure it has ASIO drivers. There are some low end usb dongles out there that are fine for connecting to your stereo, but have high latency.