I have a 24" 1920x1200 LCD panel and most older games don't support this resolution or ratio. Is there any way to force a game to "pillar box" the image so it dosen't get distorted?

How to make a game work properly with widescreen resolutions, if at all possible, will vary from game to game. There's an excellent online forum here:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
There's tutorials, reviews, and a forum where you can ask questions about whatever game it is you want to play.

Your graphics card settings might have a setting for aspect ratio correction.

Stonebro has it, that's where I would point you...

Actually, Miaghstir probably has it. While WSGF is great for getting some semi-modern games running in widescreen through hacks and mods, most older games, like all of the 90's greats here on GOG, are never going to run at anything other than their default resolution. The only solution for them is t allow the monitor to stretch and warp the image, or set up fixed aspect ratio scaling through the video card's drivers. How you do that depends on the graphics card and the monitor, so if you could provide some hardware details, we could probably give you specific instructions on how to do it.

I have a SCEPTRE X24WG-1080P monitor and an 8800gt video card. I know about widescreen wiki, but they only have solutions for newer games. is there any way to force a program to pillerbox so it dosen't distort the image?

Indeed. ATI should have a similar setting as well. Note that on newer nVidia drivers the control panel will seem to revert to normal stretching after you apply but secretly it does keep your selection and force the proper ratio.
Also the WSGF link is a great one to use, I am a member there and you would be surprised how many old games can run at full 1080p and beyond.

Couple of additions:
Flat panel scaling only works if you have the monitor connected by a DVI or HDMI cable, it won't work with a standard VGA cable.
Sometimes you do need to set up custom resolutions to make it work. There is a decent forum post on how to do this here.

For some reason that option appeared disabled in my case; I think it wasn't compatible with my card (GTS 8800 320MB). Luckily my monitor had an option that lets you choose between pillarboxing or stretching non-widescreen resolutions.