Resolved: Don't Understand Timing Rules?

I am brand new to chess.com so I played my first game here against a live person and lost, but I don't understand why I lost. I chose "3 minutes" as a time criteria and maybe that means 3 minutes per GAME not 3 minutes per move??? If that's the case then I probably took too much time. Anyway we were fairly-evenly matched with pieces when my opponent put my king in check. That's when the comment came back that my opponent won. I wasn't in checkmate; I moved my king out of check. The only thing I can come up with is that it was a 3-minute game and I took too long to move. Any comments?

Thanks,

wn6frz

So I was playing a speed game! oops. Thanks for the clarification!