One more questions....I do need to buy a soundcard right? I saw them in the store the other day and I can just get an external one, right?
If you do not already have a sound card, then you'll definitely need to buy one. If you do have a sound card, then the question is: how good is it?
Personally, I have never had very good results with internal sound cards- granted, they've all been Creative low-to-mid-range cards, and I've not tried the more expensive versions. I do have a USB (external) Creative SB Extigy and a portable USB SoundBlaster MP3+ that I carry with me for the laptop. The problem I've had with internal sound cards is that, particularly when recording 'mic in,' they tend to be veyr noisy, picking up interference from other PC components. (Laptops are really bad for this - the built-in card on my laptop will introduce this nice little beep every time the HDD is accessed, making for a very effective "heartbeat monitor" in the background when recording...)
So, while I can only say that I haven't had any noticeable noise issues with the Extigy, you can probably find other sound card recommendations on the forum here from the more 'expert' among us.