Ah.. I too am on a HP laptop with a conexant soundcard.. just before Christmas, I changed the driver of the soundcard, because the one that was in use was a windows one... no good for what I wanted... and i also installed 'asio4all' as a back-up measure too (I use a bit of music software (freeware stuff)) as some progs required it.
The good thing is, now, I can record stuff straight off the soundcard 'as is' now - just have to remember to turn audio down from the windows mixer first... before recording via audacity
And yes - the mic socket is the only line in port... so I suggest possibly a better mic too - makes all the difference. I have at least 2 mics (for different things) and just to further add complexity to the mix, a usb midi controller keyboard that I've had to dismantle and reassemble to work out why it wasnt working (the more screws there are to take out, the easier the job is to fix... and it was just ONE tiny little connection that wasn't pushed into its socket properly... grr....!)
So, you may (if you feel up to it) want to look into changing the drivers and having a look at audacity...
Just remember to be careful that you get the right driver and you'll be laughing (or recording)