Oh, well, if you can't afford an amp... I really don't know how to help. Cus what you said in your PS is exactly what my best buddy does, and his electric guitar comes in pretty damn good!

http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/4295/software/Boogex/

http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/536/software/Dominion/

link removed

Sorry bout the long links. Look for a free amp emulator plugin.

you could try making a aux input channel from the virtualizer and sending it to the guitar track. And also get a decent DI guitar fx, like pod xt or pod xt pro. Also making a gate channel from the kick drum for the bass (or pitch shifted guitar) to get a tigth sound.

Dial back the distortion setting in the metalzone pedal....and dont use as much compression. This will clean things up a bit. An emulator will help also.

IMHO throw out the compressor altogether. It's a crappy one and compressing an already heavily compressed sound is just kind of overkill. Like dave said, dial down your distortion knob. I record a kid who'll only use a metalzone and I'm ok with it as long as he lets me adjust it and I usually pull his distortion knob from 3/4's up to 1/4. However this is while going thru a tube amp with a 57 on a speaker. Also, if you aren't doing it, double track your parts and pan them to taste. You can certainly get a decent sound direct in but seriously, save your pennies and invest in a decent tube amp, even the cheap ones sound worlds better than a metalzone plugged straight in.