Aspect ratio

Windows XP + Intel graphics + Hannspree HF205

Our personal best viewing is somewhere between 1/2 and max resolution on the properties/settings slidebar. Unfortunately, the 'notch' that represents the best viewing does not translate to widescreen and scrunches the screen between two L and R black vertical bars.

Here's what I do not get. It would seem that the transposing the screen image between 4:3 and 16:9 (I think those are the aspect values) is nothing more than a math function that should be no problem for a computer, let alone a graphics card dedicated to such stuff.

Why then the problem?
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[Edited 6:10 a.m. 4/10/11]

I've given this some thought and now have a narrower question. Is it the responsibility of the graphics driver to do the calculations required when you slide the Properties/Settings/Resolution down through various lower resolutions below the monitor's default resolution? And if, on one of those resolution settings the resulting screen is not consuming the entire monitor but ending up with the black vertical bars on the L and R, that then means that the graphics adapter is not doing its job?