Error installing Tomcat on Linux

I'm trying to install jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3.tar.gz on a Linux OS. I used the following command to unzip it:
tar xzvf jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3.tar.gz
and it gave me these errors:
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers

gunzip: jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3.tar.gz: invalid compressed data--crc error

gunzip: jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3.tar.gz: invalid compressed data--length error
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
Why would it do that? How do I uninstall this on Linux and has anyone ever come across this error before?

Possibly you downloaded the tarball from an ftp server with TEXT mode turned on. That'll scramble them every time. Or, since apparently tar is apparently going through an identity crisis, maybe you downloaded a Solaris or other non-Linux tarball.
You "uninstall" by deleting whatever might have been extracted by tar into the current directory. That is, "rm -rf jakarta-tomcat-xxxxx" where "xxxx" is the version-dependent part of the directory name.
If you're using an RPM-style distro, I recommend you download and install the RPM rather than take the tarball. It places files in their preferred locations around the system (config files in /etc, executables in /bin, and so forth). Otherwise they'll all clump under the jakarta-tomcat-xxxx directory. Which is fine, but you lose some of the amenities. It's easier to backup /etc and get ALL config files, than have to chase them all over /usr/local or /opt or wherever. Also, under RedHat, you can start and stop Tomcat via the generic service controller "/sbin/service", making it simpler to bring up automatically on boot.
The downside to the RPM is that it has no sample apps supplied. That means fewer security risks, but no simple way to test for a successful install and configure.