Issue #2234: distutils failed with mingw binutils 2.18.50.20080109.
Be less strict when parsing these version numbers,
they don't necessarily follow the python numbering scheme.

Backport of r65834
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 23c2384..954ae7e 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #2234: distutils failed for some versions of the cygwin compiler. The
+  version reported by these tools does not necessarily follow the python
+  version numbering scheme, so the module is less strict when parsing it.
+
 - Issue #2222: Fixed reference leak when occured os.rename()
   fails unicode conversion on 2nd parameter. (windows only)