will prepaid cell phones work with a registerd sim card?

ok well i lost my phone and i got a replacment with the sim card now i was wondering if i buy a prepaid cell phone and put my registered sim card from at&t into the phone that it will work like sending text messages and making calls and all that.
ok but if what if i put the sim card in another phone like a virgin mobile phone would that work?

As long as it is a prepaid AT&T cell phone, no problem. My mothers phone broke a couple of months ago I bought her an AT&T prepaid cell phone took her AT&T sim card and put in it. She has had no problems since.