gxx_personality_v0 undefined - 2.96 Libraries 3.2 GCC

["J. Scott Edwards" <sedwards@xmission.com>]

I just switched this machine from Debian Woody to SuSE 8.1 GNU/Linux but
now when I try to build the software I'm working on I get this:

undefined reference to `__gxx_personality_v0'

in the .o files that come from .cpp files (the .c files don't seem to
have this problem).

I searched around and the only references I could find to
gxx_personality_v0 being undefined talk about using a 1.4.x libtool.  I
checked and indeed this SuSE version has libtool 1.4.2.

I don't understand how all this fits together.  I'm not even sure if I can
make this work.  SuSE has GCC 3.2 but the (.a) libraries that I have were
compiled with 2.96.  I don't have the sources to the libraries and I'm not
sure if I can get newer versions right now.  I had hoped that the 2.96
libraries would work with 3.2 because they are not C++.

Is it possible to make this work or do I need to go back to an older
version of GNU/Linux that has an older compiler?

Thanks
  -Scott