Atheism, from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), literally means "without gods," referring to those who rejected the existence of the Greek pantheon. In modern context, atheism can represent several different viewpoints, which are listed here in order of most consensus:
1. A lack of belief in gods. 2. A disbelief in gods. 3. A belief in no gods.
Notice that there is no inherent relationship between atheism and a religion. A person can be both atheist and religious, provided that he or she believes in a religion that does not have any deities, such as some forms of Buddhism.
What about agnosticism?
Agnosticism (from the Greek - a (without) gnosis (knowledge)) is a claim concerning itself with knowledge, or rather, the lack of knowledge. Someone who claims that they are agnostic when it comes to gods is simply stating that they don't know or cannot possibly know.
A common objection to atheism is the following argument:
"How can you call yourself atheist? You can't possibly know for sure, therefore you're agnostic!" This statement or variations thereof has been self-posted on /r/atheism countless times.
The key difference between these two notions is the difference between knowledge and belief. While it is impossible to "know" for certain whether gods exist or not, that does not mean that one is prevented from evaluating the probability of a god's existence and making a "belief" conclusion from that.
What is most important to note is that atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive. One can be an agnostic atheist, also called a "weak" atheist, or a gnostic atheist, also called a "strong" atheist (see below). Agnosticism and atheism make completely different claims regarding completely different levels of cognition. The majority of atheists freely admit that while they cannot "know" for certain that a god exists, they choose to "believe" it doesn't -- based on the lack of evidence, unlikelihood of the claim, disbelief in magic/supernatural beings, et cetera.
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