The documentation of the zlib module is a little bit
out of date:

Version 1.1.3 is the most recent version as of
September 2000.

This is wrong, the most recent version of zlib is:
1.2.1

Change it to:

Version 1.2.1 is the most recent version as of October
2004.

source:
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/lib/module-zlib.html

I hope python 2.4 Release will use this version.
(it is out since end 2003)

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Fixed in the text for both 2.4 and 2.3-maint; thanks for
pointing this out.

Note that on Unix platforms, Python will be compiled to use
whatever version of zlib is on the system; it doesn't
include its own copy.

I think the Windows binary version of 2.3.4 used zlib1.1.4;
I don't know what the binary of 2.4 uses.

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> I think the Windows binary version of 2.3.4 used zlib1.1.4;
correct.

> I don't know what the binary of 2.4 uses.
>>> import zlib
>>> zlib.ZLIB_VERSION
'1.2.1'