steem chat {https://steem.chat/home} is still around, and the link is available under the steemit three bar menu, (far right top of the page next to your icon). I used it a little bit in my first year, then it seemed like there was an issue or something and all of a sudden everyone was over on discord. I do use it for games and that is about it, and am pretty much getting ready to drop it completely out of my internet life. I only have it on the browser so I do not suffer the slowdowns you mentioned. Hopefully I will when time comes be able to delete it completely.