how the heck can i eliminate latency when i'm recording audio?! it's so annoying. i can edit and compensate, but that's so tedious.

i have a newer iMac Intel with 2 GHz and 2 GB Ram, and i'm using Ableton Live 6. I thought my newer and more powerful mac would eliminate this problem, but it doesn't. and it's not just when i'm using a usb or firewire interface. i've even experimented with just recording with the built in microphone. is there something i need to adjust? is this a general issue with my computer itself or is it more of a DAW issue. my old 1 Ghz 512 MB Ram iBook has roughly the same amount of latency, and it's a much less powerful machine. any ideas?