When it comes to running VMs, a lot depends on how many VMs you're launching and what you're going to do with them. That determines core count, RAM, etc which are the physical requirements.
A good example is my setup at home. I have a business class connection, a main webserver, then I run a support server which houses the main OS (Win7) and runs VirtualBox which has the following VMs:
VM1. CentOS based backup 1. (backs up main webserver)
VM2. CentOS based backup 2. (extra backup of main webserver)
VM3. CentOS based file server. (maps website to HDD for webserver)
VM4. CentOS based file server. (maps website to HDD for webserver)
For each of these VMs I have to assign a minimum of 1 core and a chunk of RAM (along with HDDs) - so those take 1 core each along with 1GB RAM. Using this and since they're not under huge load and file serving is simple, I could run theoretically 6 total VMs leaving two cores and 10GB for the main OS.
That all runs on a Xeon X3450 and 16GB ECC RAM in an Asus 2U 8 bay hotswap chassis (Asus P7F motherboard). It's for the most part an i7 hyperthreaded part and I got it for a steal used.
So - if you're looking to run 1-6 VMs, pretty much any i7/Xeon quad core w/hyperthreading based CPU/Motherboard and 16gb or so of RAM will do. If it's going to need to be up 24/7 - go with a Xeon setup and ECC RAM which will require server/workstation parts and you can get used stuff cheap. If you need more than that, then you're looking for newer server/workstation based parts, and those can get quite expensive quite quickly.
If you need more than 6 VMs, you'll need a Sandy-Bridge based Xeon E5-25xx or newer as they have between 4-8 cores (or more in newer Xeon v1/2/3), and are capable of dual processor configs.
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