But bitcoind is 0.3.20.00 and requires MSVC libraries. 
Did I put the wrong bitcoind.exe in the Windows exe and/or zip?
D'oh!
Companies I've worked for in the past had a rule-- programmers were not allowed to test their own code. I'm still looking for people to volunteer to be dedicated quality assurance testers (and a quality assurance manager to organize them) to help keep this type of thing from slipping through.