*Newbie question* Can I use Gcc 3.4 for compiling?

[Mark]

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty new to using linux type tools for developing so I hope you'll bear
with me for a bit (Yes another idiot windoze user, sorry).

I'm wanting to build lilypond from Source (I have patches to use alternative
staves that I have put in the source code).
The development enviroment I am in is Windows I use Cygwin for pretending to be
in linux :)

I have got the ./configure script almost working except that it is complaining
that I have to use GCC 4.0 or above for compiling.

(Here come the daft question (are you ready?)).

Can I use GCC 3.4. to compile the code? 

If it is o.k. to use 3.4. where would I change the code to specify that GCC 3.4
or above is o.k. to use?

You guys are my last hope before rebuilding GCC :( It's horrible doing things in
windows :)

Thanks
Mark
p.s. I've been considering switching to a linux enviroment to do the builds but
was wondering, is it possible/easy to compile for different platforms, i.e.
windows, Mac and linux
p.p.s. Congrats on an amazing product (plus the documentation is fantastic!!!!!)