Yeah, I like that page. Right after the announcement of the "3.96 final", there is the comment

"Notes: - There is a bug in LAME MP3 Encoder 3.96 Final version that can cause skipping. We recommend you to download LAME MP3 Encoder 3.96 b2."

Well, so much for the "final" part I guess. I think I will stick with the 3.90.3 branch, which has been proven to be just about the best you can do with mp3s.