Preamp?? Mixers?? Software??

Okay, I was looking into buying a cheap mixer for home recording (I have a friend that has a studio, and he's willing to bring it up to my apartment, but there's so much traffic noise it's hard to use his system, because the whole room is basically hot, so all the traffic would get picked up.  So I just want to be able to record "demo" versions here, so I can update my project's website and whatnot.)  Anyway, I have an acoustic electric, with a volume control and 4 EQ controls, along with a notch button.  I was wondering if this was considered a preamp?

One of the mixers I was looking at suggested using a preamp with an acoustic.

Also, do any of you have any suggestions for cheap mixers I can use with my laptop to do some basic recordings?  (Basic being pretty much just guitar and vocals.)

Also, any programs that I can mix them with, so I can record vocals and guitar separately?

Thanks so much!