Originally posted by trendkillah
First off, how are you recording? Direct, or with a mic'ed up amp?

That is a matter of taste and a matter of what kind of sound you want to have. There is not realy a rule. The highest judge is your ear! If you feel that it might sound better when recording over a microphoned amp then do so.
I personally record through a ART SGX 2000 Express Effects rack directly into a mixer and from the mixer into my soundcard - but thatz just me.

A soundcard normally does very little to alter the sound.

The soundboard turns the analog signal into a digital one - i would not call that "little". If the processing unit responsible for that work is crap, then the result will be of a low quality.

Just find out what exactly ****s up your sound before you go buying new gear.

If you want to record on a more or less professional basis then there are some minimum requirements - and a 32bit soundblaster plus cheap PC speakers are far below minimum.
Of course the distorted sound that comes out of a 150 Watt marshall sounds different to when it is played over cheap hifi speakers.