1. Get a decent and precise audio extraction program (EAC and CDex are both fine) and after setting the program to autodetect your drive features extract your CDs.
2. In EAC (at least, I use EAC and don't remember about CDex) you can set an external program to do the encoding task right after or when you're extracting the audio. If you need MP3s, use LAME. It's the highest quality MP3 encoding codec and is updated regularly (it's free software too). I recommend using the standard preset:
LAME --preset standard yourfile.wav yourfile.mp3 (for version 3.93.1)
LAME --alt-preset standard yourfile.wav yourfile.mp3 (for version 3.92)
OTOH if you want to archive your music so you don't lose any quality, use one of the lossless codecs. The two most hasslefree are Monkey's Audio (.APE) and FLAC (.FLAC). Both are free but FLAC is the one that's open-source. I've heard that support for FLAC is coming for some separate eqipment (e.g. Kenwood Music Keg). It's easier to decode (much less CPU utilization than APE) but will compress less and slower. Both can be played easily with plugins for Winamp.