I've only really ever gone into the very basics with PHP. I use 'php includes' for my layout. Basically I have one page that has all the coding above my content, and another that has all the coding below it. And then I have about two lines on all the pages with my content that tell it to drag in the coding for those other pages. And even thats pushing 'too confusing' for me.
From what I've heard/read, though, PHP isn't the sort of script you generally use for basic coding like tables. it works along side HTML.
A word of warning, incase you don't know: Freewebs doesn't support PHP. So you'll have to move to a different host.
http://dhost.info is the first one that comes to mind for PHP-allowing hosts.