OK, I was curious so I took 5 minutes to try it out. Here's the rough test code:
Here's the results (surprising):
IE6 - has it's own rollover style for form buttons anyway which, IMHO, doesn't need adding to.
Link example works; DIV example exhibits default behaviour.
NN6.1 - I haven't got 7 on my PC
Link example underlines button text and hovering changes underline to white; DIV example shows background colour, but only when
not hovering over button (i.e. hovering in DIV area next to it) D'oh!; default button exhibits no rollover behaviour
Opera 7.1 - Link example exhibits default behaviour (which is to highlight the submit button rather nicely IMHO); DIV example shows background colour when hovering in DIV area
and even when hovering over the submit button.;
IE5.5 - Does absolutely naff all. Furrows its brow as if to say, "what's hover?" Not a flicker.
Conclusion: Either don't bother because the browsers don't do what you want to do consistently or create your own button image, whack a link around it and use javascript:myForm.submit(). You can then use CSS hover styling to your heart's content.
I suppose you could always serve Netscape slightly different code (yuk).
That's my considered opinion. Hope it helps.
Jules
[ August 18, 2004: Message edited by: Julian Kennedy ]