Build emacs from sources fails on compiler

[Harry Putnam]

Setup: test3 updated to 10/28
(athlon-tbird (1.3gh)

I remember seeing some mention of emacs problems awhile ago here.
Trying to compile emacs from cvs sources fails with these error
messages:

  [root at exp emacs]# ./configure
  checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking for gcc... gcc
  
  checking for C compiler default output... configure: error: C compiler
  cannot create executables
  
  See `config.log' for more details.

Does this ring a bell with anyone?