HTML - Shadows!

Hi guys,

I'm trying to chop a template that has a drop shadow on top of a gradient background. I've attached a picture (not the template, but same principle) to explain the problem.

I haven't done chops for a few years, and I'm wondering if this sort of thing is possible. The content area has a dynamic height, so just a big background image isn't a possibility. The 'bottom' of the drop shadow also raises problems: on some pages it will extend below the end of the gradient, on other pages it won't.

I'm guessing this is impossible without transparency, which brings me to IE6. Has anyone found a way to do 24-bit transparency in IE6 these days, or is it still 8-bit only with pngfix.js?

...Any other possible solutions? Any suggestions most appreciated.

Cheers,
- The Plonk