Freon is a generic name (made by Dupoint) for R-12.
R-12 was a mandated stop production after the end of 1995, per the Monteral Protocol, and the replacement in industry is usually R-134a...and the generic name for it is Suva (also named by Dupoint). There are blends out there of the two "refrigerants" (what they are really) and R-22 (the refrigerant used in frigerators), but they are very uncommon. Considering you said you have a 2000, I am 110% sure your system is a R-134a system. Like I said, you may be only feeling vented air, and you really have to see if your system is actually engaging the clutch or not, yes low refrigerant can cause little cold air output, but your saying it takes a long time for it, so I am wondering if you are just feeling cold air from the vent and the compressor is not engaging.

And by the way...us 5th Gen A/C users got it bad as the idiot that designed our system was on crack the day he did, very inefficient a/c, and plus I got a black car, so add more heat load to that and you got basically very little cold air output.