You need to contain the content in a wrapper, not just the body tag.
I.e.
<body>
<div id="container">
<div class="menu">menu items</div>
<div class="content">Content Area</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
</div>
</body>
****** CSS ******
body {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
#container {
width: 960px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0;
}
.menu {
float: left;
width: 200px;
}
.content {
margin-left: 210px;
}