Um, the *good* players are at the sites I mentioned
The interactive chess servers have been running since the 80's and are the best places to play real-time chess online. The interfaces you get run far better than any cheezy web interface I have seen, and the quality of players is high.
Ever seen a GM take on a computer in a 1 minute game, the game went past 70 moves and the GM won on time? I have! (Roman vs Crafty.) Now think about trying to move that fast and smoothly with a Java applet on a web page (assuming you can think that quickly of course).
Cheers,
Ben