We present a finite-difference frequency-domain method for 3D visco-acoustic wave propagation modeling. In the frequency domain, the underlying numerical problem is the resolution of a large sparse system of linear equations whose right-hand side term is the source. This system is solved with a massively parallel direct solver. We first present an optimal 3D finite-difference stencil for frequency-domain modeling. The method is based on a parsimonious staggered-grid method. Differential operators are discretized with second-order accurate staggered-grid stencils on different rotated coordinate systems to mitigate numerical anisotropy. An antilumped mass strategy is implemented to minimize numerical dispersion. The stencil incorporates 27 grid points and spans two grid intervals. Dispersion analysis shows that four grid points per wavelength provide accurate simulations in the 3D domain. To assess the feasibility of the method for frequency-domain full-waveform inversion, we computed simulations in the 3D SEG/EAGE overthrust model for frequencies 5, 7, and 10 Hz. Results confirm the huge memory requirement of the factorization (several hundred Figabytes) but also the CPU efficiency of the resolution phase (few seconds per shot). Heuristic scalability analysis suggests that the memory complexity of the factorization is O(35N(4)) for a N-3 grid. Our method may provide a suitable tool to perform frequency-domain full-waveform inversion using a large distributed-memory platform. Further investigation is still necessary to assess more quantitatively the respective merits and drawbacks of time- and frequency-domain modeling of wave propagation to perform 3D full-waveform inversion.