Knight...
Bearings don't usually 'warp'. They get grindy, noisy, loose, but they usually make all kinds of noise when they go bad. Take the AC belt off altogether, spin the compressor pulley. It should spin smoothly & not at all loose. But the pulley itself can get bent. Any of the pulleys, really, but the crank pulley has that rubber insert that can get flaky.

Compressor bearings probably require the compressor to be rebuilt? But there's also bearings in the compressor CLUTCH, which maybe can be replaced. I'm not sure.

Lager...
I didn't think of engine mounts - good idea... Did they have those funky vacuum-controlled mounts as early as '96?? A mis-timed balance shaft would vibrate all the time, even with the AC turned off? Right?

BTW in real life I'm a mechanical engineer, I just like to work on my own cars. I saw you're a Honda tech, thats pretty cool. There's lots of specific stuff that I only know for the cars I own. I've had a couple VWs, Saabs, a BMW, etc... Bad bearings & belts too tight/loose aren't really special features patented by Honda. That's the kind of stuff that can happen to a Cadavalier or a Ferrari, too.

I had a wobbly crank pulley on my '86 Jetta, and it only made the car vibrate when the AC compressor clutched in. Must be because of the extra load on that belt.