Can you do this HTML layout without using tables?

Solution 1:

There is nothing wrong with using the tools that are available to you to do the job quickly and correctly.

In this case a table worked perfectly.

I personally would have used a table for this.

I think nested tables should be avoided, things can get messy.

Solution 2:

Just float left and right and set to clear both and you're done. No need for tables.

Edit: I know that I got a lot of upvotes for this, and I believed I was right. But there are cases where you simply need to have tables. You can try doing everything with CSS and it will work in modern browsers, but if you wish to support older ones... Not to repeat myself, here the related stack overflow thread and rant on my blog.

Edit2: Since older browsers are not that interesting anymore, I'm using Twitter bootstrap for new projects. It's great for most layout needs and does using CSS.