my hard drive crashed and i lost my dreamweaver files for my website layout...since i have to start from scratch im wondering if i should create my site with tables and html or suck it up and try to get better with css...?? what are the benefits of css vs html??

CSS isn't a replacement for HTML; rather, HTML (and XHTML) work hand-in-hand with CSS to provide a site. It's a method of separating content from presentation: HTML is the content (the text, images, pictures, and so forth) on the site, and CSS defines the presentation (the look or "layout").

Tables are good for tabular data, but they shouldn't be used for page layout. CSS is a lot more flexible anyway, so it'd probably be best to look into CSS-based layout and go with that.

it's a preference.

some would argue that css > tables but other people like tables > css.

do what best fits you.