One option is to install VirtualBox, which also works on Windows (in case you need to create virtual machines from another Windows computer, you'll be familiar with the interface). However there's also KVM which is a Linux-native solution for creating virtual machines and runs much smoother.
It's hard to say whether or not games will run "smoothly". It depends on the game, and how much power from the host machine you decide to allocate to the guests. In addition, passing through graphical cards can be tricky and I have no experience with it.
For VirtualBox, you'll need something called Guest Additions to allow the guests to detect the USBs.