I see a lot of PLUG has answered your other questions and I would like to hit one for you:
There are plenty of ways to go about getting your windows games to run on your Ubuntu machine. I run WoW and Diablo2 ( I am a Blizzard Fan ) from my machine via Crossover. VM's of windows can't handle the game requirements and often make the host system lag. I do have some VM's running because I love to stay current on other OS's but I run all the MS programs in Crossover. There is WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) as the free version of Crossover but with the paid for option I can back up the MS programs and reload my OS or switch distros and dump them back on my machine with no hassle.
I am always available off list if you want to talk about the game stuff.
Oh did I mention I am giving a security presentation tonight
I would love to be the guy to figure out how to play my MS games in Linux, as it is now my only reason to keep Windows around in a virtual desktop..... Eventually I'd like to use the disks for target practice.. :}