>Can anyone offer a nickel overview of what is needed for a two monitor setup? I think a special video card or maybe a second video card is needed and that's all. I know there is a configuration dialog in Windows but that's probably duck soup once the hardware is in place.

All you need is a video card that has two video outputs. They're pretty inexpensive now - you can pick one up for less than $100. I bought a cheap second card from newegg.com for $40. My desktop machine actually has a Y adapter which splits into two monitor outputs, so the other card was for a third monitor. It sounds like overkill but it's really a nice for development. You don't need to do anything special in Windows - just drop in the card, let it detect it/install the drivers. Then go into the video set-up and you can adjust the order of the monitors (which one is the left/right/etc).