I agree, I have a Marshall DFX100. I'm starting to think that the sound out of that is better than my Pod or Digitech hardware. It is definitely fatter and the distortion sounds a lot more real.
Also, I remember reading that Metallica used their amps for distortion on "...Justice For All" (their heaviest sound of all) and the late great Chuck Schuldiner from Death saying that he only ever used a Marshall cab for all heavy guitar tracks on albums and live.
Anyone have an opinion or advice on using the effects on the PODxt for example for noise gate, compression etc on a clean setting along with the distortion channel of a good amp? How would you do it best?

guitar to POD to amp to pc
or
guitar to amp to POD to pc
????