I would like to build online multiplayer game (Listen Game) - users listen to clips of songs and determine which words are most and least relevant to the song. Users earn points when they pick the same words as others who are playing at the same time and listening to the same song clips.

I would like to develop java applet games and use them as clients, and have people play the games against each other. and the server side i want to do in java.

Is there any Game Networking programming APIs? Is there one that
is considered the most common? Is there one that is considered the
best?

I have noticed OpenTNL as a good option for helping me to add networking functionality to my game.but its in C.

If anyone could point me in the right direction, or give me a couple of hints, that would be much appreciated.

Can i use winsock or socket.... Can it handle what i need?

Winsock probably won't work on your Mac.

You can use Java sockets:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/...ocket.html

Here's a useful tutorial:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/...g/sockets/

And here's more links:
http://www.google.com/search?q=java+socket+examples