Had a little play with this as an exercise. How about:
html
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>divtest</title>
<meta name="Author" content="">
<meta name="Keywords" content="">
<meta name="Description" content="">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="divtest.css">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<div id="banner">
<h1>PEERIA Films</h1>
</div>
<div id="maincontainer">
<form action="http://www.firebirdomain.com/joomla/index.php" method="post" name="login" id="login">
<label for="mod_login_username">Username</label>
<input name="username" id="mod_login_username" type="text" class="inputbox" alt="username" size="10">
<label for="mod_login_password">Password</label>
<input type="password" id="mod_login_password" name="passwd" class="inputbox" size="10" alt="password">
<input type="checkbox" name="remember" id="mod_login_remember" value="yes" alt="Remember Me">
<label for="mod_login_remember">Remember me</label>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" class="button" value="Login">
<a href="http://www.firebirdomain.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_registration&task=lostPassword">Lost Password?<br>
</a>No account yet?<br>
<a href="http://www.firebirdomain.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_registration&task=register">Register</a>
<input type="hidden" name="option" value="login">
<input type="hidden" name="op2" value="login">
<input type="hidden" name="lang" value="english">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.firebirdomain.com/joomla/">
<input type="hidden" name="message" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="336e6ae4fe84ce54a4f92f8e7bb9aec2" value="1">
</form>
<ul id="nav">
<li>link1</li>
<li>link2</li>
<li>link3</li>
</ul>
<div id="content">
<ul id="latestnews">Latest News
<li><a href="http://www.firebirdomain.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43">Events</a>
</li>
</ul>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Praesent sodales condimentum sem. Duis eu quam congue mauris fermentum porta. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Proin sit amet libero commodo erat lobortis molestie. Sed vehicula neque quis quam. Sed at dui. Mauris in sapien. Nulla facilisi. Mauris blandit lectus eget enim. Integer justo risus, pulvinar eu, posuere quis, mattis sit amet, augue. Praesent tellus risus, porttitor id, rhoncus eu, rutrum nec, lorem. Donec vitae lorem. Praesent eleifend tortor at nibh. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nulla facilisi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Morbi dui. Cras volutpat lectus eget augue. Mauris non felis.
Quisque in nibh sit amet massa interdum rutrum. Quisque arcu lorem, lobortis id, pharetra a, tincidunt nec, urna. Nullam gravida, nulla quis venenatis iaculis, sapien ante imperdiet nunc, vitae convallis nisi erat bibendum magna. Donec a ipsum eu neque fermentum fringilla. Nam faucibus justo. Praesent venenatis quam et ipsum. Quisque vel arcu vitae odio ultricies venenatis. Curabitur nulla magna, tristique eu, luctus quis, faucibus in, mauris. Donec consectetuer augue eget urna eleifend convallis. Quisque aliquet, urna ut pulvinar tempus, lacus ante sagittis arcu, at vestibulum orci nibh sit amet tellus.
Donec adipiscing. Vivamus vitae massa egestas ante tempus pharetra. Cras id nisi. Morbi dignissim ipsum a enim. Phasellus lorem. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam molestie. Quisque sed risus nec turpis egestas cursus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Vestibulum eleifend viverra purus. Duis at nisi.
Nam pulvinar libero sit amet magna. Mauris porttitor tincidunt nunc. Morbi eu erat quis ligula aliquam eleifend. Aliquam euismod purus sit amet lorem. Maecenas sollicitudin pharetra erat. Donec arcu. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nulla facilisi. Cras quam felis, dictum sed, viverra non, aliquet nonummy, odio. Nunc ligula. Praesent sit amet sem a est consectetuer interdum. Proin in odio nec odio elementum commodo. Praesent vitae nulla eget est pretium pellentesque. Integer lacinia tempus nisl.
Vivamus id urna eget felis interdum sodales. Donec lacinia euismod elit. Sed elit. Phasellus malesuada sollicitudin mi. Maecenas dignissim leo eget dui hendrerit porttitor. Donec egestas elit nec metus. Vestibulum tincidunt velit vel ante. Cras nisl nisl, porttitor at, porta vel, iaculis vitae, felis. Aenean sagittis feugiat quam. Phasellus id odio ut enim tincidunt pretium. Nullam turpis pede, dignissim sit amet, congue at, molestie sit amet, odio. Aenean pede orci, laoreet ac, sagittis at, sollicitudin vitae, mi. Cras ac neque. Etiam tincidunt condimentum leo. Pellentesque vitae est a diam ultricies commodo. Nam molestie odio vitae leo. Phasellus a dui in diam bibendum bibendum. Nulla dui.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Praesent sodales condimentum sem. Duis eu quam congue mauris fermentum porta. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Proin sit amet libero commodo erat lobortis molestie. Sed vehicula neque quis quam. Sed at dui. Mauris in sapien. Nulla facilisi. Mauris blandit lectus eget enim. Integer justo risus, pulvinar eu, posuere quis, mattis sit amet, augue. Praesent tellus risus, porttitor id, rhoncus eu, rutrum nec, lorem. Donec vitae lorem. Praesent eleifend tortor at nibh. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nulla facilisi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Morbi dui. Cras volutpat lectus eget augue. Mauris non felis.
</div>
<em>Footer</em>
</div>
</body>
</html>
css
* {
border: 0;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
body {
font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", Tahoma, Georgia, Sans-serif;
color: #fff;
font-size: 11px;
background: url(images/bgrepeat.gif);
width: 100%;
}
#banner {
background-image: url(images/redbanner.png);
background-repeat: repeat-x;
height: 350px;
position: absolute;
width: 100%;
z-index: 0;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
}
#banner h1 {
font-size: 1px;
color: #7B0001;
background-image: url(images/bannertop2.png);
height: 107px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 419px;
display: block;
margin-left: 20%;
}
#maincontainer {
width: 680px;
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
z-index: 1;
top: 0px;
position: relative;
}
#nav {
background-image: url(images/buttonbar2.png);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
height: 21px;
padding-top: 115px;
background-position: left bottom;
list-style: none;
margin-left: 10px;
}
#nav li {
float: left;
display: block;
height: 20px;
width: 50px;
text-align: center;
}
#content {
background-image: url(images/contentbg.png);
background-repeat: repeat-y;
color: #000;
padding: 20px 160px 20px 20px;
position: relative;
}
#login {
background-image: url(images/blacknavbar.png);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 118px;
position: absolute;
top: 20px;
right: 0px;
height: 200px;
padding: 10px;
z-index: 5;
}
#login .inputbox {
display: block;
margin-bottom: 3px;
}
#login .button {
display: block;
margin: 3px 0;
}
#latestnews {
width: 118px;
padding: 10px;
position: absolute;
top: 100px;
right: 0px;
background-image: url(images/blacknavbar.png);
list-style: none;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
height: 300px;
color: #FFFFFF;
}
#maincontainer em {
display: block;
height: 100px;
clear: both;
background-image: url(images/footer.png);
background-repeat: repeat-y;
padding: 10px;
}
Note the reduction of divs and loss of the tables....
I used relative image url paths whilst playing, so you will have to change back to your normal path if you like.
Cheers
Graeme