Side by Side Tables

I have two tables I want to display, side by side. I have full functionality using nested tables, and I also have a good appearance with frames. However, I have read about CSS tables including an inline-table parameter, but I can't get it working. Are there any tutorials people reccommend? I have used CSS a bit in the past, but never with tables. Do I use the regular table class and then make a .mytable style with the border and like? This is what I've tried but adding display: inline-table; didn't work.

Other related but less important questions:

1. Does CSS render faster than nested tables (data to and from user as well as processing time to draw the table)?
2. Is CSS the best approach for this (or frames or nested tables)?


edit: unrelated side question:
If I use frames, is there a way to have a single background (color or image) display across a group of frames?

Thanks!

-Rob

What are you using tables for? If it is for presentation purposes, then 9 times out of 10, you should be using CSS instead, to control your layout. CSS renders much faster than a table - less code, the CSS files is cached so only needs downloading once, plus with tables, a page can't draw until all nested tables are loaded and parsed.

CSS is the correct approach, as your site will be able to viewed across more devices, it will be faster, more future-proof, have better usability...

More info:
http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/
http://www.fortyfivedegrees.com/

PS - Don't even think about frames!