Good Cooking Wine?

[SmokinPhysics]

So I have a recipe that calls for white wine and another that calls for cooking wine. Can any wine be used as a cooking wine, or is there some specific type of wine that's a cooking wine? Also, what would be the best type of white for the first recipe (a garlic-wine-chicken dish)?

I know more about cigars than the average layman (thanks in large part to my fellow inmates!), and I can talk beer til I'm blue in the face, but I know not the first thing about wine.