Image maps are good eye-candy and can be useful, but they have some problems.
The viewer also has no idea in advance what URL the click will go to. Client-side image maps are nicer to the server, and give the viewers a visual clue as to where a click will take them, but some older browsers don't handle them. I don't mean to completely leave out the concept of image maps. I suggest a completely different idea. As far as you know without looking at the source, the above could be a client-side image map.