diff -up Macaulay2-1.4-r12617/configure.ac.optflags Macaulay2-1.4-r12617/configure.ac
--- Macaulay2-1.4-r12617/configure.ac.optflags	2010-10-19 17:00:55.000000000 -0500
+++ Macaulay2-1.4-r12617/configure.ac	2011-01-14 13:03:45.894830844 -0600
@@ -226,9 +226,9 @@ FFLAGS=` echo $FFLAGS | sed -e 's/-O[0-9
 ]
 
 if test "$OPTIMIZE" = yes
-then CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -O3"
-     CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS -O3"
-     FFLAGS="$FFLAGS -O3"
+then CFLAGS="-O3 $CFLAGS"
+     CXXFLAGS="-O3 $CXXFLAGS"
+     FFLAGS="-O3 $FFLAGS"
 else CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -O0"
      CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS -O0"
      FFLAGS="$FFLAGS -O0"