CSS or HTML Columns versus Tables

I'm working on generating a TOC with PHP pulling info from my DB. What I want to figure out is if there is a way to do columns with CSS without using a table? I read about the <multicol> tag that isn't supported ... it would have been perfect for my needs.

The reason I was looking for something other than a table, is because I have a list of dates that look like this:

1859 2000
1959 2001
1999 2003

If I use the PHP script then it looks like this:

1998 1999 2000
2001 2002 2003

I don't want the change to cause too much confusion amongst our inexperienced users.

Any suggestions other than tables?

Don't understand your example...is it that a 2 x 3 tabular info becomes a 3 x 2 table when run through the script?? Then just modify the way the script displays the info and that's it! Otherwise, please explain better.

Div & tables, better divs or tables etc... Well, to me the answer is very simple: use divs for structure and tables for data. The problem is that tables have been used for too long as a structural element, so now the campaign is towards making web designers use tables for "what tables are made for", and use divs for structure. But what I fear is happening is that people are taking this recommendation too far, and are starting to do the opposite: using divs to diplay tabular data! That's not good, get it?