Note that the manual states that the input parameter must be a string compressed with gzcompress(), so it is not guaranteed that it will compress ANY zlib compressed string.
I realized this while decompressing some compressed string in a pdf file. The gzuncompress() function produces a data error, but the string can be successfully decompressed with other zlib decompressors.
More info here:
http://bugs.php.net/?id=39616