Is it safe to assume that most modern browsers now fully support PNG format without crazy workarounds and the like? Is there an informative place to keep check on the status of this issue if not? Thanks in advance

Well, if by 'modern' you mean IE 7, FF, Safari, etc., then yes, they support PNG transparency. IE 6 does not, not w/o a bit of scripting and even then it won't support a REPEATING transparency.

IE6 users still make up more than 60% of my site visitors, so you still can't ignore it.

Actually, it will support a repeating transparency under certain circumstances:

1) The background has to be 1 pixel by 1 pixel.

2) Apparently you can't use the background more than once.

Having said that, it's a bit of a lightning in a bottle scenario.

Thanx you folks for the responses. It's a shame that this format is more widely used. So I'll digress and continue using jpegs and gifs until it is. Thanx again.

Even though IE7 is a critical windows update, i am sad to see that around 2/3 visitors to my sites still use IE6. Shows how interested ppl are in keeping their systems updated.

I wonder how much longer will it take for ppl to dump IE6.