Personally I'm a fan of fixed layout. If your motivation is monitor size, I try to make it fit a small monitor and window can be resized and it doesn't affect text. I also think beyond the monitor and make a page that can be printed out at 100% and the width fits on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, about 580 to 632 pixels wide. Nothing bugs me more than printing out a fixed webpage and getting a stack of paper with 2 pages to print each page, one with the bulk of the page and a second sheet with a sliver of the edge of the page. Because most people don't think of this when designing, so I try to print pages at 75% to avoid the extra pages.

But with your question of fixed vs. free flowing I think it depends on your motivation. Why do you want it free flowing. Is it for different size computer monitors, or the small screen market: pda, cell phones w/ internet & other hand held devices.

If your motivation is for the growing demand of pda and small screen market you could make a scaled down site with simplified page, less empahasis on huge graphics. Make a simple site with text styled with CSS and pictures that reflow and allow the browser to be scaled big or small with ease. Test it on different monitors, browsers, hand held devices and get a happy medium of where it looks good all around.