ok, you don't need a separate partition because VMware creates .vmdk files, this is basically the disk that is used by the virtual machine...
of the downloads, Vsphere will let you set up and experiment with cloud computing.
infrastructure 3 is what vsphere was called before they rebranded it,
VMware server does what you want to do, (but does not have the clone feature)
vmware ESXI is for running virtualised machines on bare metal, (no host OS needed).
the converter standalone is a tool that clones any machine that it's run on and creates a vmdk, basically it creates an image of the workstation so you can go back to it if you want to make a server, or workstation visualised, say you're consolidating lots of small app servers to reduce hosting costs, rather than rebuilding them you just clone them and run them...
vmware player will let you take a vmdk file and, well um, play it, see what's on it, boot the file...
the workstation lets you run multiple images at once, create images, and clone workstations...
when you're building a workstation, you can choose either to use a CD or DVD connected to the host, (the actual CD drive), or you can use a virtual CD drive to look at an ISO.
Basically, you'll probably want either vmserver or Vm workstation...
if you were feeling particularly hardcore you could try esxi and run your workstation as a VM as well...
