[aries2k]

I don´t see why the ps3 games would freeze but it would be normal to get a distorted image or no color since your on SD NTSC TV and your using a PAL game. That´s one good thing about HD because there´s no more NTSC*PAL problems.
Don´t know if there´s any program that will set the output resolution for the game.
You might want to check about an RGB SD cable. Not sure if that will work with ps3 games but it did for ps2 games.. it worked for NTSC games on a PAL tv so it should work the other way around, too.
Of course if you just obtain the US version and not the EUR version you won´t have that problem.