Thank you for your answer AKostur. I didn't think I'd get a reply that long, from my fuzzy question.
Since my "accusations" against virtualization were only based on my own guessing, I'm pretty easy to persuade. Just reading that you've encountered the "virtualization penalty" before, and that your experience is that it is close to non-existant, is enough for me.
My alternative solution was to implement my new server on bare metal and skip virtualization. I will give virtualization a try, and hopefully I will remember to get back to this forum with a report of my experience.
Thanks!