Tables were used for layout before CSS/XHTML existed.  And they're not going away soon.  But the solution to most CSS problems is to stop treating the web like a printed page.  The web is fluid, layouts move outside of the designer's control.  Let them and you'll find you don't need tables.  Divs are easier to style as well.

On the other side, browser rendering is the real issue.  IE notoriously avoids some CSS standards, and doesn't seem like it will ever be fully compliant.  Inheritance is still broken in IE 7 and causing problems.  And you can't force what a user will choose to view your site with.  Sometimes tables are just easier than coding all the exceptions.

Neither loads faster just because of using a table or a div.

Jeff

Jeff, I'm a big proponent of using the full width (well 95% of it at least) of the browser and I've never been able to get a skin to be able to do that fluidly when trying to use DIVs only. I'll admit that I'm not the greatest skinner but would this be one of the times where there are a ton of exceptions or am I missing something? The site is http://www.bus.nait.ca/main.