Well, I am a guitarist, so I would say, “no”, there is no VST instrument that sounds good, especially for lead, which I recall you mentioning earlier. That being said, I am sure most musicians would say that about the instrument they play. Of course, once you get an ear for the instrument, it is just so easy to spot a virtual instrument.
To the previous question, I feel a dedicated sound card is very important for recording audio. A built in sound card won’t have the sound quality and will have too much latency.