Do I need a new sound card?

So, I was playing Call of Duty 4 last night through my crappy headphones (Through front port audio) (but still better than my crappier monitor speakers), and all audio was good, though still pretty bad quality. Anyways, while I was at school today, my mom decided to clean the house (oh boy!). She decided she didn't like where my computer was, so she moved it. Judging by how heavy it is, I doubt it was moved gently. Now, when I was trying to listen to some music in Itunes, I saw that my Realtek HD Audio Manager kept on saying 'You just plugged a device into the audio jack' then 'You just unplugged a device from the audio jack' (Device in question being the headphones)Now I have it set up so that when headphones are plugged in, speakers are disabled. But I left those notification alone, and after a while, it settled to the device being unplugged. I was still able to hear through the headphones, then I realized that audio was also coming through the speakers too. If I replugged the headphones a few time, it would go back to device plugged in, and then it would be headphones only. I have checked internal connections to the front panel, and all is good. The jack seems in good condition, and I have tried a few headphones.

Do I need a new sound card? (It would probably make COD4 more enjoyable). If so, which sound card? 5.1/7.1 would be nice, in case I ever get an awesome headset, but a digital jack would also be useful if I get a digital headset. I need analog though, so I can plug in my mic and current speakers. My biggest thing though, is that I need it to be able to connect to the front panel. I use it very often to switch between headphones and speakers. I don't know if cards have an internal connector, or if it just goes straight through the motherboard to the connector. Any suggestions welcome.

Edit: I would like the sound card to be under $100, but a few bucks won't really make a difference.

Edit: I am also sort of interested in a new set of surround sound super duper headphones. If I do get those, the budget for the sound card will get shortened, because I don't want to spend more then $150, really. Most-bang-for-less-buck as possible

Edit: Or should I just go with USB headphones?

I wouldn't bother with the soundcard unless you're upgrading your headphones - which you luckily are! On the soundcard front i'd recommend the Asus Xonar (any model really, i much prefer their music/film performance to the x-fi) and pair it with some Senneheiser headphones such as the HD595 which are quite frankly brilliant (Although i don't know whether they're in budget).

Basically, if you're going to keep your current 'phones i wouldn't recommend upgrading the soundcard however if you do upgrade your 'phones to some decent ones then i'd deffo get a soundcard.

One bit of advice, don't get any 5.1 headphones, generally the quality isn't as good as a pair of proper headphones such as the aforementioned HD595s. Although, if you really want 5.1 then nothing else will do will it!

yeah USB headphones tend to be bad-ok quality.

I also have a headset/microphone from logitech I had a different problem there was lots of crackiling so I gave up on those used my iPod headphones (there good for now LOL) and a dedicated mic or my webcam mic (mic on the webcam which is USB does a much beter job than the headphone/mic setup) and now my crackiling problem is gone

Sorry in the long reply time,
I guess what I really do need is USB headphones, because my main thing is to be able to plug something in to the front of my PC and have audio routed from speakers to headphones without having to change cables. I am not interested in RMAing my case, though I have determined that it is a jack problem. Unless there is some 3 1/2" or 5 1/2" device on the cheap that can do this, then I am stuck with USB headphones

I have seen little dongles that come with high end bose computer speakers that have a headphone jack in them, but I am not interested in getting speakers as well. Any suggestion for good USB headphones on the cheap? (Sound quality is not really a dealbreaker at all, unless the quality is absolutely terrible)

I can't seem to find many USB headphones on the 'egg