Tables for layout

I just read A case for table-based design and was thrilled to know I am not the only one that drowns in div soup from time to time.  I do not for the most part use tables for layout, but there are some cases where I just can't make a set of divs do my bidding. The classic example is having a two column layout where the left column LOADS FIRST and is elastic and the right column is a fixed size.  The "loads first" is important in a world where the rendering time of pages has become important.  Ideally with any page, the most important content would render first for the user. In my case, this fixed column is an ad. As a web developer, I don't care when the ad loads. The ads are a necessary evil in my page layout. I must ensure that they load in an acceptable time frame, but certainly not the first thing on the page. The specific layout I am talking about is that of the top of dealnews.com.  It has a fixed size 300x250 ad on the right of the page and the left side is elastic. I fiddled with divs for hours to get that to act the way I wanted it to act. We use the grid CSS from OOCSS.org. Wonderful piece of CSS that is. But, even with that in hand, I could not get the elements to behave, in all browsers, the way I could with a simple two column table where the left column's width is set to 100% and the right column contains a div of width 300 pixels. It was so easy to pull that off. Maybe CSS3 is going to solve this problem? I don't know. If you have the magic CSS that can do what this page does, let me know.