Password Protecting files

[zzapper]

Hi,
I would like to password protect a few of my files, and realise I know very 
little about security.
>From man zip I learn

Encrypt  the  contents of the zip archive using a password which
is entered on the terminal in response to a  prompt  (this  will
not  be  echoed;  if  standard error is not a tty, zip will exit
with an error).  The password prompt is  repeated  to  save  the
user  from typing errors.  Note that this encrypts with standard
pkzip encryption which is considered weak.

I am not trying to protect state secrets so is pkzip encryption adequate?
What other choices do I have?

-- 
zzapper
http://www.rayninfo.co.uk/vimtips.html