Tables have been used in website design for years and years. They used to be "the way" of turning flat designs into websites, most graphic design applications such as photoshop and fireworks even allow you to save your design as a table-based layout.

I won't flog the whole tables vs. css positioning discussion, but there is a place for both in modern website design, it's just a matter of picking when it is appropriate to use them!

A general rule of thumb I use for deciding where a table is appropriate is to ask yourself the simple question:

"If I was using an office suite to present this data, would I use Word/Publisher or Excel"

If you answered excel, perhaps it is a list of bus stops and times, then a table is most likely the right solution!
If you're just wanting to lay out some images and some text, then you would be answering "Word/Publisher" and thus should not use a table to lay things out.

Keep that simple question in mind as you develop websites, as it often provides an easy answer to whether a table is appropriate or not!