Ti mando il codice di un esempio...
la pagina html:

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="it">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<META NAME="keywords" content="....">
<META NAME="author" CONTENT="--">
<title>titolo</title>
<link rel=stylesheet href="stile.css" type="text/css">
<style>
.pics {
position: relative;
top: -79px;
left: 95px;
width: 851px;
height: 440px;
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="corpo">

<div class="menu" style="z-index: 1">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="950" height="215" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="163" height="215" rowspan="3">
[img]./images/menu/logo.gif[/img]
</td>
<td width="787">
[img]./images/menu/up.gif[/img]
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[img]./images/menu/voci.gif[/img]
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[img]./images/menu/down.gif[/img]
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>

<div class="pics" style="z-index: 2">
[img]./images/home.gif[/img]
</div>

</div>
</body>
</html>

css:

body, table, td, th, label, p, legend, fieldset, h1, h2, h3, div, caption, span, a, abbr, acronym, input, textarea, select {
font-family : Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color : #000000;
}

td, label, p, legend, h2, h3, div, caption, span, a, select {
font-size : 12px;
}

.menu {
position: relative;
top: 10px;
left: 0px;
width: 950px;
height: 215px;
}

.centro {
position: relative;
top: -20px;
left: 0px;
width: 950px;
height: 350px;
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
float: right;
border-style: solid;
border-color: #CCCCCC;
border-width: 1px;
}

.testo {
position: relative;
top: 0px;
left: 470px;
width: 390px;
height: 290px;
overflow: auto;
padding: 8px;
}

.corpo {
margin: 0px auto;
text-align:left;
padding: 0px;
width: 950px;
height: 552px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: #CCCCCC;
border-width: 1px;
}

table, tr, th, td {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

th {
font-size : 13px;
font-weight : bold;
}

body {
background-color: #ffffff;
text-align:center;
margin:50px 0px;
padding:0px;
}

il div padre si allunga..