python-mode weirdness in xemacs-21.0b41 on Win98

The subject says it all - I may be half-crazy to be running Win98 I know, but I wanted to test it out - I have the latest xemacs beta and it runs pretty well for most of what I do, until I try to open an interactive Python session - when I do: M-x python-mode C-c ! I get: File "c:\PROGRA~1\PYTHON\python.exe", line 1 MZ$L$PQè>＠ª330‡ª3‡::0ª3‡ª3‡ ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax Process Python exited abnormally with code 1 Python 1.5 is installed at C:\Program Files\Python which is name-mangled to C:\PROGRA~1\PYTHON in my PATH setting. Typing "python" from a DOS prompt works fine.