I figured me making any sort of statement implying anything positive about tables would solicit such a responsemark wrote: I'm sorry but I believe you should stay away from table based layout like the plague, it will not help you learn much and then you may have a harder time going to a CSS/div driven layout

Keep in mind, the other option that leerees was considering is a Template Monster design . . . while pure CSS is great it's a bit idealistic for someone who I'm assuming is a novice. What I'm suggesting is utilizing styled tables to understand the basics of graphic layout...when using styled tables it is very easy to transition to pure CSS if one so desires.
In any case, to each his own opinion...that's why this forum is such a great venue.
You mentioned you can design any site in pure CSS...that's commendable. I think the best guage of a solution is seeing past results. It's really all about the site owner's needs and preferences...so leerees it look like you can look to both mark http://multiintech.com/ or myself http://risingline.com as different flavors of resources if you need external help.