Microchip was kind enough to send me a few sample Atmega328 chips
And I thought Atmel made AVR chips? Maybe Microchip sent you a couple of dead ones to get you to move over to their dark PIC side. 
I started cheap to with a RS-232 kit version of the Arduino for around $20 as when I had my PC made I had legacy serial and parallel ports added (as well as a floppy drive
http://www.nkcelectronics.com/freeduino-serial-v20-board-kit-arduino-diecimila-compatib20.html
For USB options, I would stay away from USB serial cables unless stated to work with the Arduino IDE. Too much hassle if driver software can't be found, or the DTR auto-reset wire not available.
As far as essential support for a standalone 328, it's not much especially if you can program the chip in a working board and just move it to your project board. You need a 16mhz crystal + 2 padding caps (or one 3 terminal 16mhz ceramic resonator), a pull-up resistor for the reset pin is recommended but in theory not required, and a couple of .1ufd bypass caps for the Vcc and Avcc pins on the 328 chip.
Lefty