I've done this recently, with a Sony DV cam-corder.
As suggested you need a Firewire socket, I added a Belkin one to my computer, it adds three Firewire ports and three USB 2.0 ports as well. It also came with a Firewire cable (which are expensive to buy), and all the required software. I can happily recommend it!.
As long as you run XP then no drivers are required, although drivers are supplied for older systems.
Be aware that it takes HUGE amounts of hard drive space and you really require a VERY fast machine to play with video (I don't have one, so it's quite a slow process.
For an example, the 28 minute video of my daughters band took 5.8Gb of hard drive space, and almost 4 hours to convert to DVD format.