One can do that using winforms and the controls you are interested in are the Panel, FlowLayoutPanel, and importantly the SplitContainer. These controls are all found in the Containers section of the Resource Toolbox.
I suggest that you browse these examples and FAQs to help solve your problems.
Check out the
101 Samples for Visual Studio 2005 which is a robust, initial development tasks to more involved tasks for winforms, web development etc which may help you in other areas.
Check out the Windows Forms .Net (
FAQ) which has differing lists of items, very helpful. Another FAQ which rounds up many subjects is the MSDN Winforms
FAQ. Also check out is the GotDotNet
Winforms Quick Start.