Snow Crash is awesome. I finished it and "The Diamond Age" last week and I can vouch for them as a worthy read.
Firstly, it's dated quite badly, since it was written in the recent past about roughly-now. He gets the technology pretty much right, but the speculation about how that technology will change society pretty much all wrong.
Secondly, Mr Protagonist, as a protagonist, annoys me in that he seems more like the kind of character that a fourteen-year-old boy would think was awesome (greatest swordfighter in the world, for no good reason!) than somebody I want to read a book about.
Cryptonomicon, on the other hand, is a must-read. I don't really even like science fiction that much, but Cryptonomicon is a must-read.
Part of the point of Hiro is that he's a loser and an asshole. There wouldn't be a plot if he started out as a good guy, because he wouldn't find himself mixed up in the mafia and cults the way he did.
Cryptonomicon is a geeks must read.
To my knowledge I might still be the best racer in the world in some racing game I wrote last year, so I can absolutely relate to that ;-)
Something about single-handedly assaulting an aircraft carrier using only his katana? That was pretty much where the book lost me.