Earlier, I used the table based layout.. But after learning CSS, I think I won't be going back to Table based layouts again...
One you create a layout , the CSS files can be used again in another project with a similar layout but with different graphics..
You can have a look at www.csszengarden.com/ The content remains the same but the ultimate design changes..
Regarding the Cross Browser compatibility issues, you need to first know the most common problems with the IE, Safari etc and modify the CSS code to get the perfect output...
I strongly suggest you to go for a CSS based design