I run NT4 and the MS Intellimouse Explorer that has 4 buttons.
I went into the Intellimouse Explorer configuration (in Control Panel
find Mouse) and set the big side button to be Ctrl key. Then I went
into Moz v0.9.7 Preferences to Navigator|Tabbed Browsing and checked
the
Open tabs instead of windows for
Middle-click or control-click of links in a Web page
Middle-click or control-click of bookmarks and personal
toolbar items.
Now I can hold down the side button and then click on the right button
to open a new page in a new tab.
I really wish the Intellimouse Explorer allowed you to configure the
side buttons to be more things. I'd like a single button that did
Ctrl-Click and a single button that did Ctrl-Shift-Click.