diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index fe42b6716..4709a8135 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1382,3 +1382,4 @@
   and Bock for tracing this down.
 - Fixed set::allowed-nickchars causing a segfault for some unknown charsets, rportered
   by avb (#0003069).
+- Fixed zlib version check: 1.x is compatible with all 1.*, etc. (#0002966).
diff --git a/src/ircd.c b/src/ircd.c
index 997b662b1..ab684dfc0 100644
--- a/src/ircd.c
+++ b/src/ircd.c
@@ -907,7 +907,7 @@ static void do_version_check()
 #ifdef ZIP_LINKS
 	runtime = zlibVersion();
 	compiledfor = ZLIB_VERSION;
-	if (strcasecmp(compiledfor, runtime))
+	if (*compiledfor != *runtime)
 	{
 		version_check_logerror
 		    ("Zlib version mismatch: compiled for '%s', library is '%s'",