Is Counter Strike underated?

I've played CS Source a little bit and I really like getting the boom headshots but I hate waiting so long to respawn and its hard to find a good server to play on because I'm always kicked from the servers because my ping is too high. I don't even know what ping is!!! Games like Quake 3 and Halo Combat evolved are much more friendly to noobs like me. So I guess my question is, should I give CS Source another chance (if so, how do I make my experiences with it fun and exiting?)