No, I like the banner — I think you need to carry that look through the rest of the site. Don’t forget to put an alt tag on it.
Never put two 468×60 banners immediately next to each other — they compete and cancel each other out. Banners with free offers that are related to the site theme work very well.
I think a primary focus of the main page should be to promote the other sections of your site. You should probably try to work that into the layout.