Can I plug an electric guitar into my sound card?
To help answer your question and elaborate on what others have said. Yes you can plug your electric straight into your sound card. The way you described of plugging it in is exactly how you need to do it. In order to get the different effects and avoid spending all this money with pedals and effects machines like the other person said. There is a software called guitarfx. You can find it at guitarfx.net It has all the effects you are looking for distortion, overdrive, chorus , flanger, delay, reverb, even an equalizer and noise gate. The software is free and should hold you over until you decide to buy an amp. Good luck.
