When data is tabular, tables make sense. I think there's been a lot of brainwashing that tables are evil; really, it's just that tables aren't ideal for layout.

If you've got a page with tabular data, use the table tag! It's semantically valid and a concise way to get the proper formatting!

But, if you're trying to lay things out - it's likely a grid layout will do the job better. Straight CSS is pretty hard to get right with all the floats, but starting with a grid system and especially something even higher level like Twitter Bootstrap can really be productive. Note, however, that bootstrap still supports and encourages tables when it makes sense.