This picture shows a css layout on top and a table layout underneath. Both behave in the same way and exhibit the same characteristics.
The same css is use for each row and any column can be the longest and the columns will equalise. The text is aligned to the top.
This image shows the css layout squashed just to show that the behaviour is consistent and there is no change to the layout.
This is the table layout squashed to show that the css and the table match more or less exactly (give or take a pixel or 2).