Im embarking on a project to build a new website.
From what I can see a lot of people are just going straight for css3 and ajax nowadays and not bothering to support browsers that dont have JS installed. They are using a number of workarounds such as enabling css3 through javascript in older browsers
Is this the ideal way now?
This really depends on the case. If you need to support older browsers like IE<9 and you need to do some fancy stuff not supported you can use a set of libraries 'faking' this new features for you. If you do not have to support older browsers or don't need to do fancy stuff you do not have a problem really. Check out http://www.caniuse.com to quickly see what features is supported in what browser (versions).