I tried it (in preview) without a table size and it didn't work. Notice that as you posted it, the three 40-pixel columns are
not not same width, and the 175-pixel-width column is not 175 pixels wide (at least not on my MacBook Pro or large MacPro monitor). The widths of the columns appear to be set by the text of the headers, not the 'width="x"' HTML column-width specification. You've seen my markup language in the FReemail.
Curious, eh?
I meant to notice that as well in my remoarks--
I do believe that if the text would fit wthin the 40 pixel size, then the columns would be the correct size. However since text i important in a table, it must put the text as written into the column. Since the text is not negotiable, the column width must give way to fit the text.
Try the same thing with no text, or a single char and see if that works:
| 300 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
| Align left |
. |
. |
. |
. |
| ✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |