thumbnail gallery of posts (as a portfolio page)

Does anyone know of a good plugin and/or approach to displaying a thumbnail "grid", with excerpts, that functions as a portfolio of posts. (Each thumbnail/excerpt would link to the full post/portfolio item with more description and photos. I don't want a pop-up gallery, just asimple, clean layout that is automatically updated by adding new post/portfolio items. Any ideas? I've tried various plugins, but either they don't function properly (with Atahualpa?) or they are driven by gallery uploads, rather than by posted items. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.