diff --git a/configure.in.in b/configure.in.in
index 0228d19d..465be629 100644
--- a/configure.in.in
+++ b/configure.in.in
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ i?86)
 	then
 		MMX_SUPPORT="no"
 	else
-		as_ver=`echo $as_ver |sed -e "s/.*version //;s/ .*//"`
+		as_ver=`echo|as -v 2>&1 | grep ".*version.*" | awk '{print $NF}'`
 		as_major=`echo $as_ver |cut -d. -f1`
 		if test $as_major -gt 2
 		then