I use MSE. very simple an works great. it has ONLY what i need of features.
Avast has more features then MSE, but i personally don't need them.
I have never used AVG, so i can't speak for that. i'm sure it's just as good as the rest of them.
Protecting wise all well known anti-virus software are more or less equally protective.
so you just need to find the software that that have the features you want.