Also strongly recommend that you consider getting Atmel's AVRISP programmer. When you're just starting out there are SO many things that could go wrong it's comforting to have confidence that the programmer and its driver (AVR Studio) are off-the-shelf parts and are blessed by the manufacturer, and so therefore slightly less likely to be the source of whichever problem is occurring.
For example, new ATmega8 chips come from the factory set to use the internal RC oscillator. Odds are pretty good that you'll forget to burn the fuse that switches the clock to use an external crystal or clock generator [not that *I* have EVER forgotten to do that ] and end up with a chip that kinda-sorta works but that won't talk to the PC. Lots of other things can go wrong that cause similar symptoms. Do yourself a favor and start off with one fewer ...