The banner ads have been a bit large lately, making me actually wait for the page to load so that they can show me ads. As a paying customer, I figure it is my privilege to refuse to see these ads.
If you don't have ad blocking, and you use IE, just go to the TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS - SECURITY then add Ads1.msn.com to the restricted sites folder.
Presto. No more annoying banner ads that make the page so slow to load.