Wow... I think maybe I should apologize for lighting the fuse on this here bomb lol.... not the intention...
Fact is every post here has at least a degree of validity.
1. using div over table is there
seo benefit?
A. Google has long stated that the order the tags show up in the code has meaning.. an <h1> at the top carries more weight than an <h1> at the bottom. Divs with CSS let you place that at the top in the code yet have it show whereever you like in your design.
B. As google and yahoo have both stated in the last year they will be looking to pay more attention to sites which are accessible. how and when they do this no one knows, when they do you'll need to redesign your site again to keep your position.
C. there is a huge drive towards rss (video / photographs / widgets), and mobile. These technologies bring great profits (at least to everyone I've seen using them) and require table-less layout
Don't confuse table-less layout with not using tables for tabular data!.. CSS does have the ability to line up numbers in columns along the decimal point but it's not easy to do. tables are still valid but you should have summary and caption for them to be correct.
SE's don't care if your code is valid, they prefer it cause it's easier to index, and your site can sometimes get listed faster with valid code (not always depends how bad the unvalid code would be). They have shown that they want to start caring that your code is accessible... meaning that they will care that it is valid eventually.
So if you don't know how to do a table-less design simply and easily that works cross browser, not a bad idea to start learning how to. Along the learning curve don't be afraid to use a table to meet a deadline!
lol...