Somewhere there is a happy medium. This depends largely on the size of the monitor and the screen resolution being used by the viewer. Try viewing your pages at several different resolutions and, if possible, on various size monitors. Also, view them with different browsers in the same fashion. This can be a bit time consuming but the payback is worth it.
Most people have a fifteen-inch monitor because they are more affordable.
Try to keep this in mind when designing your next site. Also, the most commonly used resolution is 800 x 600. These two figures are based on my own research. I certainly do. I don't like horizontal scroll bars.