
Rob Glazebrook post an article about creating zebra stripes tables with CSS. Here's short excerpt from this article:
I recently spent a bit of time on the OneHundredPushups website, and the aspect of the site that most caught my eye (aside from ninja-girl on the front page) was the zebra-striped tables strewn throughout. (For those not in the know, zebra striping tables refers to alternating colored backgrounds on table rows, a la iTunes.) Studies have shown that there is (or at least can be) a slight performance increase associated with zebra striped tables (or at least there isn’t a decrease), and that most users prefer zebra striping to traditional lined tables.
Source: CSSNewbies.com.