Excel table links to Word yield different cell sizes & margins, on some systems

I have a table of 5 columns and 4 rows in Excel that is linked to a Word document. On one system, the linked data looks perfectly fine, fits well within the margins of the Word document page. Even when doing Select All / Update Links to refresh the data, the table grid remains as it was. However, on some other computers using the same Word and Excel files, same version of both Word and Excel - when the Select All / Update executes, the size of the table expands and some of the right columns are pushed off to the right of the page margin. I have three PCs for which this works fine, three others which have this 'exploding cell margin' problem. All links are executed with Paste Special and RTF formats.

I suspect there is something environmental about these systems' setup, but they look as identical as I can tell. All have the same software and version numbers. Is there some option setting in Word or the Excel table that tells it to either retain margins, or else ignore the cell size of the link when updating? I can't see anything relating to that, and all the Tools/Options settings appear to be the same for all the PCs. I must be missing something blazingly obvious.

Unfortunately this environment is Word 2000 and Excel 2000, in case that is important.

Thanks very much if you have any ideas.

Have you tried repairing the Office installation (via Help|Detect & Repair)?
Have you tried deleting & reinstalling the printer drivers?
Are all the PCs using the same printer?