"distutils" is by now the standard mechanism to distribute Python packages and extensions, and appeared in Python 1.6. It runs under 1.5.2 though, but you have to install it (once) to use it for that Python version.
Documentation:
[http://www.python.org/doc/2.2.1/dist/dist.html Distributing Python Modules] - information for developers
[http://www.python.org/doc/2.2.1/inst/inst.html Installing Python Modules] - information for users and system administrators
[http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/ distutils SIG]
DistUtilsExtensions is a repository of extensions for your "setup.py".