By default the 686 is supported in the same way that the 586 is supported,
backwards compatibility with x86 code.  The i386 port has a few things it
can do to support the specific chips, but primarily it waits on a compiler
(gcc) that will generate code for them.  As we're still waiting on gcc to
emit 586 code, and the -m486 flag does little of interest, the likelyhood
of specific 686 support anytime soon is low.

Does anyone know of a 'whats new with gcc' url?

-j