What about the Guitar Rig3, don't they have a version that actually has a DI box with a pedal on it and everything, where u plug in ur guitar and do all the amp modelling in the plugin? I know i peeped the demo a while back, and even tho i was only runnin my mans live bass through it from time to time, i would run alot of other audio through it just for sound manglin purposes. It was pretty cool to use the diff amp models and stuff to warm up and fatten or distort different sounds. I think it might be around the $300 mark or something. I just remember it havin lots of different opions as far as amps, cabs, pedals and such. That might be woth a look, maybe not. Also, Line 6's toneport or pod xt look pretty good on the site, have not actually seen it in action. I went to a dude's crib who played guitar and he had a Crate box that he jacked into which went into the computer and diff cabs and amp models and stuff. crate actually makes real guitar stuff, so i would imagine it's pretty good at what it does. It almost looks kinda like that Blue mic pre with the tube stickin out front. Anyway, thats bout what comes to mind, i'm not a guitarist, so i don't know how good any of that stuff really is compared to the real deals, but it's worth a look. Hope that helps.
LevLove