AV, Firewall, Imager

[Muji-FightR]

Well, like visible in the topic name, Im lookin for some good software pieces.
I need an AV scanner, thought of NOD ? Can anyone just tell me if its as good as you can always read...
Dunno, Im using Avast right now and the license for updates finishes in 2 months...so Im looking for something new, avast had some bad reviews so i dont want to use it any longer
second thing i need is a recommendable firewall, dont have a clue...
nothing special, might be freeware aswell, main thing is that it works
and last but my no means least is an imageing software to make a clean winXP setup with SP2, updates and .NETFX which I want to make an image of...
thats easier than format c: and reinstallation of all the crap once again...
so i only have to do it once and never ever again, just have to use the image...

thats quite a lot, thanks for your answers...

Muji