+1 on the traktor audio 2 DJ, its litterally the best and smallest 2 channel card on the market, and is good enough for club gigs, heck, i use one for my smaller gigs 🙂
You use one channel as your main out, and another as your headphone cue, this lets you listen to your track through your headphones and beatmatch it into place, then when your ready, either using a controller, or just your mouse, fade your track in and hopefully it will still be in beat,
And abusing EQ’s ? not a beginers thing mate 🙂 its all about your style, you think it sounds good and your not abusing the track too much? go ahead and have fun with it 🙂
Another thing about the Audio2DJ is you can hook it up to an external mixer, and use the mixers own headphone out for cueing, i started off with a $40 behringer 2 channel and absolutely loved the thing, and it means you can have a real feel on your EQ’s and your fading