copy protection?

[Lil Half Swell]

The slow down part is normal for games protected with Safedisc and Safedisc 2. A couple of the games you mentioned (Max Payne, C4) use this as their protection. I'm not sure what the other games use.
It will only be slow for about the first 3 or 4 percent of the read, then it will speed up once it gets past the errors. Just be patient with it, go eat a sandwich or a woman or something while it works. Or knock back a few cold ones while you wait.
With your LiteOn, you should be able to make perfect backups.
Be sure to use CloneCD as it will copy the games you mentioned. Nero isn't much use for copying protected games, but great for other purposes.
If you need help with CloneCD, check out the CloneCD forum over at forum.cdfreaks.com