When it comes to receivers it's pretty easy. Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer all make good stuff. Find the one with the features you need/want and can get the best deal on. I'm partial to Denon, there are those that love Onkyo, and others that swear by Yamaha. What is your budget? Do you have any space restraints?
By the way I'm not sure that any receivers have 2.1 outs for the second zones, none that I know of any way. So if you'll want to run a sub in the second zone you'll need to have one with speaker level inputs and run the speakers through it.