I was impressed that the Ares can put 206 tons into LEO, which exceeds the Saturn V (I believe... actually I didn’t check that), and beats the Apollo booster’s “to da moon” payload. Using the human-rated iteration probably requires multiple launches, along the lines you suggest — sending the surface habitat (more like a habitrail) on ahead, then putting the crew there.
Using a trajectory to the moon similar to the one used by the Clementine probe, I wonder how much more the Ares V could deliver?
It was capable of putting 107,000 lb into Lunar orbit (about 48,700 kg).
IIRC, the landing (dry) weight of the Shuttle orbiter is 109,000 lb.
Source: www.imperialsolutions.com