Are the height/weight of the boxes fixed or fluid? Has panel A any background?
The easiest way:
HTML
<div id="container">
<div id="side"> panel A</div>
<div id="head"> panel B</div>
<div id="content"> panel C</div>
</div>
CSS
#container{
width: 100%;
}
#side{
width: 20%;
float: left;
}
#head{
width: 80%;
float: left;
}
#content{
width: 80%;
float: left;
}
If you have background to panel A, you should set it to the container, and inherit it from.
Edit:
Q: How do I ensure that panel C doesn't slide under panel A when A's content is shorter/equal to Panel B?
A: You have two option:
a) Wrap B and C to a wrapper div:
HTML
<div id="container">
<div id="side"> panel A</div>
<div class="wrapper">
<div id="head"> panel B</div>
<div id="content"> panel C</div>
</div>
</div>
b) Play with padding; set 20% padding to the container, and -20% margin to the side:
CSS
#container{
width: 80%;
padding: 0 0 0 20%;
}
#side{
width: 20%;
float: left;
margin: 0 0 0 -20%;
}