RPM/YUM/Mach catch-22

[John Dalbec <jpdalbec ysu edu>]

Mach/apt is no longer supported
Mach/yum doesn't work unless yum is at least the FC3 version
RHL 7.3 libpng-devel is uninstallable using FC3 RPM because FC3 RPM expects 
versioned dependencies to include the epoch.
I don't know whether adding the epoch to the versioned dependency would break 
RHL 7.3.
Anyone see a way out of this?
Thanks,
John