I use the Epson Perfection 2530 (a long discontinued model). But I have worked with a few other fellow chippers who have different Epson printers with the same results -- I think Epson scanners are great. The key to the good scan is not necessarily the scanner resolution but other parameters (including color depth). You'll probably notice with the all-in-one models that the "hot" colors (oranges, yellows, pinks) are very washed out.

The software is sort of irrelevant for getting a good scan. The scanner itself will come with driver software which allows you to scan, crop, and even slight adjustments in brightness and contrast, and then save the scan. But I do use Photoshop Elements (v5, although that is old now) to do the basic manipulation of the chip (rotating, cropping, saving).