Get a Boss Gt-8 so you can monitor your sound as you're recording. This'll give you endless choices for sounds to inspire you to come up with stuff.
Then get Amplitube and apply it to the sounds afterwords.

If you need something live you could also go with a GT-8 through a P.A. but personally, I'd go with the best stuff you could find like the standard Marshall and Vox amps with all the power conditioners, eq's and stomp boxes etc....

For live I use a complete road setup with all the bells and whistles, but for recording, I just use the GT-8 and take a spltter out so I can record the clean signal. Then you can tailor the sound you want using Amplitube so that it blends in with the song.