Download a copy of Reaper for your primary DAW at http://www.reaper.fm
That's the best sequencer and recording software you can get for the money - it's got everything Cubase and ProTools has (it supports VST's and a whole load of other plug-ins). It's free to download an uncrippled copy, you re asked to regsiter it if you like it for a $60 which is an amazing deal. Forget all the other stuff and jump in with this package - there are plenty of pro recording studios on this set up now and their forums are extremely helpful for beginners. Steep learning curve but well worth it once you get setup.
As far as hardware goes, you need a good soundcard that has a 1/4" jack to plug into so you can get your guitar onto your pc. I would recommend anything by M-Audio or Echo - I've always gone with PCI cards because you can get the latency down to almost true zero and they take a lot of the strain off the cpu.
Hope that helps,
Dave