Andy,
Which install did you use with v5.5? I've tried Bart's rpms, but the end result has just refused to start - it declares it's starting OK, but when I check the status both the zwatchdog and the zserver are stopped..... I did run into some issues when installing python - the error that appeared was:
error: Failed dependencies:
> libcrypto.so.0.9.6 is needed by python...
> libdb-3.1.so is needed by python....
> libssl.so.0.9.6 is needed by python...
I'm about to try the latest zope release on it's own, but the install guide for that assumed you weren't running any unusual type of linux, i.e. not e-smith

I'd be interested what route you found to get zope to run on 5.5....
(another) Andy