This is a sample page with a marble background in a div.
This is the div that has the background image. It is 400 pixels wide.
This is a paragraph in the div.
This is another paragraph in the div.
I like this effect so I made a class for it:
.marble { background-image: url(marble.gif)}
Then I put my class in my div:
<div class="marble" style="width:400px">
This technique can be used to replace tables that have background images.
I also made pages using this background-image in a page, a paragraph or a span. Check them out.