(-missed 30-min. cut-off, -storm here!!)
I opted to get an existing 3-column layout that resizes.... I said "padding-left" and "padding-right", -opps, -meant to say BORDER and those are the left/right columns. -It 'tricks' IE.
I footnoted this, -hope it helps you.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<title>3-column fixed left-right with fluid center</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="Description" content="" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us" />
<meta name="robots" content="all"/>
<meta name="authors" content=" "/>
<style type="text/css">
* {margin: 0;padding: 0; border:0;}
body {font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;
background-color: #E6E6E6; font-size: 16px;}
/* no need to declare "margin:0; padding:0;" again, because " *{foo:bar} " gets them all */
body {min-height:100%; height:101%; margin:10px;
font:x-small Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;
voice-family: "\"}\"";voice-family:inherit;
font-size:small;/*for IE 5.5 */
} html>body {font-size:small;}
/*font-size: small; voice-family: "\"}\"";
voice-family: inherit; font-size: medium;*/} /* Assist IE rendering height, keyword-font sizes, etc. */
/* next sets some basic defaults for header tag sizes and margins (required) */
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {font-family: 'times new roman', arial, verdana, serif; background-color:none;
font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; }
h1{font-size: 1.86em; margin-top:12px;}
h2{font-size: 1.62em; margin-top:12px;}
h3{font-size: 1.42em; margin-top:12px;}
h4{font-size: 1.39em; margin-top:12px;}
h5{font-size: 1.32em; margin-top:12px;}
h6{font-size: 1.21em; margin-top:12px;}
p {margin: 10px 0;}
#header {background-color:#FFF; border:1px solid tan; border-bottom:none;
text-align:left; height:60px;}
#header h1 {font-weight:bold; text-align:center;}
#left {background-color:transparent; color:#FFFFFF; width:125px; float:left;}
#left ul {margin-left:20px;}
#left ul li {list-style-type:none;}
#right {background-color:transparent;color:#FFFFFF; width:125px; float:right;}
#right ul {margin-right:60px;}
#left h2, #right h2 { background-color:transparent; border-bottom:1px solid #163740; color:#122E36;
height:25px; display:block; font-size:20px; font-weight:normal; line-height:25px; text-align:center;}
#left a, #right a {margin-left:10px;}
#center {background-color:#ececec; color:#000; padding:20px; border-left:160px solid tan;
border-right:160px solid tan;}
/* note that the BORDER-LEFT and BORDER-RIGHT are really the LEFT and RIGHT columns */
#center h1 {text-align:center; padding:20px 0;}
#footer {background-color:white; clear:both; font-size:1.3em; letter-spacing:0.25em; padding:0.3em 0; text-align:center;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header"><h1>Your BANNER text here</h1></div>
<div id="left">
<h2> Navigation</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<ul>
</div>
<div id="right">
<h2>List, Navigation</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link here</a></li>
<ul>
</div>
<div id="center">
<h1>Header Here</h1>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Suspendisse egestas ultricies pede. Phasellus suscipit blandit risus.
Praesent nonummy. In erat. Duis nibh pede, accumsan eu, pulvinar et,
volutpat vel, elit.
<img alt="Image #1" src="#" style="width:100px; height:125px; border:1px soild black; margin:9px; float:left;" />Curabitur nec dui sed nunc congue tempus. Nulla ac
dui ac libero fringilla nonummy. Maecenas ullamcorper sodales risus.
Vivamus pretium dolor. Proin eu turpis. Phasellus ut mauris non nulla
mattis luctus. Nunc porttitor dapibus sapien. In malesuada fermentum
metus. Nulla egestas, tellus a vestibulum pharetra, nunc purus auctor
lacus, ut semper purus ipsum eu velit. Praesent dui. Nulla accumsan
turpis at erat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Morbi lacus felis, euismod at, pulvinar sit amet, dapibus eu, eros.
Etiam tellus. Nam vestibulum porttitor urna. Phasellus aliquet pretium
quam. Proin pharetra, wisi nec tristique accumsan, magna sapien pulvinar
purus, vel hendrerit ipsum tellus at ante.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Suspendisse egestas ultricies pede. Phasellus suscipit blandit risus.
Praesent nonummy.
<img alt="Image #2" src="#" style="width:100px; height:125px; border:1px soild black; margin:9px; float:right;" /> In erat. Duis nibh pede, accumsan eu, pulvinar et,
volutpat vel, elit. Curabitur nec dui sed nunc congue tempus. Nulla ac
dui ac libero fringilla nonummy.
Maecenas ullamcorper sodales risus.
Vivamus pretium dolor. Proin eu turpis. Phasellus ut mauris non nulla
mattis luctus. Nunc porttitor dapibus sapien. In malesuada fermentum
metus. Nulla egestas, tellus a vestibulum pharetra, nunc purus auctor
lacus, ut semper purus ipsum eu velit. Praesent dui. Nulla accumsan
turpis at erat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Morbi lacus felis, euismod at, pulvinar sit amet, dapibus eu, eros.
Etiam tellus. Nam vestibulum porttitor urna. Phasellus aliquet pretium
quam. Proin pharetra, wisi nec tristique accumsan, magna sapien pulvinar
purus, vel hendrerit ipsum tellus at ante. Nam vestibulum porttitor urna. Phasellus aliquet pretium
quam. Proin pharetra, wisi nec tristique accumsan, magna sapien pulvinar
purus, vel hendrerit ipsum tellus at ante.</p>
</div>
<div id="footer">Whatever you want to do here, -copyright info, etc</div>
</body>
</html> What makes it work, BOLD. Actual content, blue.
Looks complicated but it mostly is things that makes the page look the same in other browsers, not related to actual functioning of 3-col layout.