I still (lazily) plug in my Korg G3 almost automatically whenever I amp-up. 9 presets you can muck about with and a pretty true "natural" tone.
Noodle on!

The Line 6 floor pods are fantastic.

you're after, but here's what I use:http://www.carlmartin.com/product_quattro.htm (the earlier version, though, with trem in place of chorus).

Bomb-proof and ideal for gigging, not having "menus" etc to scroll through, just (basically) four stomp-boxes welded together, with one in and two outs, so no need for patch-cords and the like (which always, eventually, let you down at gigs...)

Sounds great, too!

so to speak I plug my guitar into Garageband and that has nearly all of the effects I can think of and they are all able to be customised.
If you are a PC person I don't know if there is a viable alternative?

A dinky bit of software that emulates dozens of amps and pedals, lets you filter out the guitar on mp3s so you can play over it, and even correct tracks songs recorded a semi tone down so you can noodle along with out re-tuning. You can import any mp3 and slow it down to pratcice - vital for the hopeless and ungifted like me. You can download guitar profiles that others have created that emulate well known tracks - I have all of Jimmy page's tones if none of his touch or technique.

No latency from the PC, it comes with its own sound card (it replaces your PC's when you plug it in) and speaker. The latter isn't great but it has a line out feed that enables me to punt the signal into an AV amp.

One significant drawback is that despite being based on tried and tested Korg software, some users - me included - find it's drives cause crashes and some "popping" from the soundcard. Once I stopped booting the PC up with it plugged in things got a lot better. A pain in the bum but it wouldn't stop me using it.

Prior to getting it I had a couple of different Zoom pedals, but a PC based approach made the whole playing along to tracks so much better.

make a great range of budget multi fx, starting from around £50.

http://www.dawsons.co.uk/acatalog/Zoom_Guitar_Effects.html

Although I have to say I'm mostly quite anti multi-effects. They never quite capture the sounds of a good array of stompboxes, but if you're going to do it, Line 6 are better than most.

Although I'd urge you to buy a good versatile distortion and the best analogue delay you can afford, and take it from there. It's amazing what dirt and delay can do. (I speak as someone who used to have a three-and-a-half-foot pedalboard crammed with lunacy. I'm now down to dirt, delay, tremolo and occasional wah).

Less is more.

I use it for home recording, there's a selection of Amp sounds (along with tone controls etc) on the left and effects on the right. They've now replaced it with the V-Amp3, which looks to be pretty much the same unit (except it's now Red and has a couple of extra Amp sounds), but you can still get this version from a few websites for a lot less.