I have finally found the culprit that was causing the front end noise on my '94 Eagle Vision. I was in the midst of replacing the anti-sway bar links (more on this in a moment) when I looked closely at the lower control arm bushing. The bushing was not centered in the engine cradle bracket, but was instead very close to the front of the bracket. I wedged a screwdriver between the bracket and the bushing, and, with just a little prying, the bushing slid back! It was now clear why the suspension made noise when it was loaded in a fore-aft direction (braking, rapid start, etc.), as the bushing (and whole control arm) would slide forward and contact the bracket with a loud knocking sound.
As a temporary "repair", I cut some old radiator hose into thin slices and wrapped tham around the bushing sleeve to take up the space between the bushing and the bracket, then secured them with tie-wraps. Not exactly elagant, but the noise is now gone! I'll have to schedule a proper repair in the near future.
With regard to the sway bar links, I replaced them because of the many recommendations that this would solve the front end noise. Actually, the existing links were still "tight", as there was no play in any of the spherical bushings. Granted, the rubber boots were all gone and one of the ends could be rotated freely in the spherical bushing, but they've held up pretty well over 10 years and 170,000 miles and were not yet the source of any noise. Given the condition of the boots, however, they probably would have started to make noise in the next 20,000 miles, or so.