breaking up the main page

I’m working on a site where I would have to break up the main page into 3 seperate content areas. I figured the best way to do this would be to assign categories.. that’s a no brainer. I’m trying to figure out the best way to diaplay the posts in the page though…

Would I have to create 3 seperate worpress loops displaying an article only if it matches the proper catagory? If that’s the case what if I wanted to display 5 of each, how can I ensure that WP fills the third section with 5 posts from category 3 *even* if I don’t post in that category regularly?

I’ve attempted a few different things, each ending in failure 🙂 So i figured that I would come talk to the masters.

Thanks in advance for any help!