Theme formatting problem

Sorry for my third post in less than 24 hours all in the same section however my previous posts haven’t been answered and I have found no way of deleting my previous posts so my apologies for bombing this forum. However I have this issue that will resolve all my previous post I have a archive.php file that contains the following code

<?php get_header(); rewind_posts(); ?>
<div class="archive">

		<?php
		query_posts($query_string.'&posts_per_page=24');
		if (have_posts()) : ?>

 	  <?php $post = $posts[0]; // Hack. Set $post so that the_date() works. ?>
 	  <?php /* If this is a category archive */ if (is_category()) { ?>
		<h6></h6>
 	  <?php /* If this is a tag archive */ } elseif( is_tag() ) { ?>
		<h6>Posts Tagged ‘<?php single_tag_title(); ?>’</h6>
 	  <?php /* If this is a daily archive */ } elseif (is_day()) { ?>
		<h6>Archive for <?php the_time('F jS, Y'); ?></h6>
 	  <?php /* If this is a monthly archive */ } elseif (is_month()) { ?>
		<h6>Archive for <?php the_time('F, Y'); ?></h6>
 	  <?php /* If this is a yearly archive */ } elseif (is_year()) { ?>
		<h6>Archive for <?php the_time('Y'); ?></h6>
	  <?php /* If this is an author archive */ } elseif (is_author()) { ?>
		<h6>Author Archive</h6>
 	  <?php /* If this is a paged archive */ } elseif (isset($_GET['paged']) && !empty($_GET['paged'])) { ?>
		<h6>Blog Archives</h6>
 	  <?php } ?>
<div class="clear"></div>
<?php $i = 0; ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); $i++; ?>
<div class="span-8 post-<?php the_ID(); ?><?php if ($i == 3) { ?> last<?php  } ?>">
<h6 class="archive-header"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title() ?></a></h6>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<p class="postmetadata"><?php the_time( get_option( 'date_format' ) ); ?> | <?php comments_popup_link('Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?></p>
</div>
<?php if ($i == 3) { ?><div class="archive-stack clear"></div><?php $i = 0; } ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>

<div class="clear"></div>

this code returns a wonderful three column layout that I truly love. I am using a page to return all the post from particular categories in order for my theme to work properly with my use. The page I am using to return the category posts has a php template with the following code

<?php
/*
Template Name: Insight
*/

get_header(); ?>

<div class="archive">

<?php
if (is_page() ) {
$category = get_post_meta($posts[0]->ID, 'category', true);
}

if ($category) {
  $cat = get_cat_ID($category);
  $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
  $post_per_page = 24; // -1 shows all posts
  $do_not_show_stickies = 1; // 0 to show stickies
  $args=array(
    'category__in' => array($cat),
    'orderby' => 'date',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'paged' => $paged,
    'posts_per_page' => $post_per_page,
    'caller_get_posts' => $do_not_show_stickies
  );
  $temp = $wp_query;  // assign orginal query to temp variable for later use
  $wp_query = null;
  $wp_query = new WP_Query($args);
  if( have_posts() ) :
		while ($wp_query->have_posts()) : $wp_query->the_post(); ?>
	    <div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<h6 class="archive-header"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title() ?></a></h6>
        <small><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> <!-- by <?php the_author() ?> --></small>
        <div class="entry">
          <?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry »'); ?>
        </div>
        <p class="postmetadata"><?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?></p>
      </div>
    <?php endwhile; ?>
    <div class="navigation">
      <div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link('« Older Entries') ?></div>
      <div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries »') ?></div>
    </div>
  <?php else : ?>

		<h2 class="center">Not Found</h2>
		<p class="center">Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.</p>
		<?php get_search_form(); ?>

	<?php endif; 

	$wp_query = $temp;  //reset back to original query

}  // if ($category)
?>

	</div>

<?php get_template_part( 'bottom' ); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

However this returns all of my posts from that category in a single line with no columns. I have managed to get things to go into a broken 2 column format. I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction on how to get this page to return a the same three column layout.

Thanks again.