How to remove/tune this <table> for IE

[hydn]

Tables are crippling my forum's performance in IE. How can I remove the table below but maintain the left and right images that wrap it with round edges?

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="961" align="center">
<tr valign="top">
    <td class="page_left"><img src="/misc/left.jpg" style="width: 10px; height: 459px;" alt="" border="0" /></td>

<td width="100%" class="page1">

<!-- content table -->
$spacer_open

$spacer_close
<!-- /content area table -->


</td>
</tr>
</table>

</td>
    <td class="page_right"><img src="/misc/right.jpg" style="width: 10px; height: 459px;" alt="" border="0" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Would like to speed up in IE

Thanks