Is it true that newsletters in HTML should have a “table-based” layouts?

Question

I read somewhere that when creating a HTML email, you should use the table-based layout. You should not care about creating tableless css based layout. Is that true? I have

Answer 1

We've been doing some tests with customers on how newsletters look on their computer and found that a majority is using a layout in Outlook or in Mail that shows a width of only about 45 characters. They don't bother to double-click to open the email in a new window or scroll around. The emails with some content other than a logo and text that appeared somewhat better were the ones with only one big GIF...