There are a couple of things working against you here. When going through component, both the TV and video card likely expect a specific set of resolutions (480i/p, 720i/p and 1080i/p). Depending on either the TV or video card, it may not be possible to output or display anything beyond what it expects on component.
In my experience when building my media center, the best bet on a TV is to go through VGA if your TV has a VGA input. It will likely accept a pretty wide array of inputs, but even then you may hit some limits. My TV for example, does not accept anything below 640x480 on VGA, Component or HDMI. I also have an odd one or two pixel repetition of the left side of the screen when at that resolution. If I bump it up to 800x600 or higher, I'm fine.
My advice is that if you experience issues at the native resolution, but still want the same experience, see if a resolution of double what you're trying is available. This way, the pixels will simply be duplicated. For example 320x240 could be replaced with 640x480. This should result in next-to-zero distortion and look as close as possible to the native resolution without actually being at it. If a double resolution isn't available for what you're looking for, the next best bet would be finding one of the same aspect ratio.
Unfortunately, depending on your TV this can be a lot harder than it needs to be.
