I don't recall AltaVista's response time as slow (although I was impressed by Google's fast response time, which they proudly reported then). It was the page-load time, which was slow for AltaVista compared to the one of Google, which initially drove me away once that alternative was available.
Yeah, all portal sites were cluttered heavily. Google was only the logo, the search input field, and the submit button. That was one of the biggest advantages for me.
