http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iptables
PREROUTING: Packets will enter this chain before a routing decision is made.
INPUT: Packet is going to be locally delivered. It does not have anything to do with processes having an opened socket; local delivery is controlled by the "local-delivery" routing table: ip route show table local.
FORWARD: All packets that have been routed and were not for local delivery will traverse this chain.
OUTPUT: Packets sent from the machine itself will be visiting this chain.
POSTROUTING: Routing decision has been made. Packets enter this chain just before handing them off to the hardware.