It's not a bad start, but there are a few things that could use some improvement.
If you're going to make it a fixed width, please center it on the page. It will still work on lower resolutions no problem, but it won't look off-balance at higher resolutions. (As it stands now, there's a huge distracting void on the right side of the page, and I'm only running at 1280x1024.)
The 10 point text doesn't really work for the amount of space you've got, and the existing margins make everything feel crowded. You might want to experiment with different font sizes and margins.
Also, fixed height layouts are bad. To be frank, it looks really amateur when you've got lots of empty space everywhere and a 500 by 250 scroll-o-matic box for yoru main content. The footer should always follow the content, not dictate where it's restricted to.