Why does gcc use movl instead of push to pass function args?

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Here is what the gcc manual has to say about it:

-mpush-args
-mno-push-args
    Use PUSH operations to store outgoing parameters. This method is shorter and usually
    equally fast as method using SUB/MOV operations and is enabled by default. 
    In some cases disabling it may improve performance because of improved scheduling
    and reduced dependencies.

 -maccumulate-outgoing-args
    If enabled, the maximum amount of space required for outgoing arguments will be
    computed in the function prologue. This is faster on most modern CPUs because of
    reduced dependencies, improved scheduling and reduced stack usage when preferred
    stack boundary is not equal to 2. The drawback is a notable increase in code size.
    This switch implies -mno-push-args.

Apparently -maccumulate-outgoing-args is enabled by default, overriding -mpush-args. Explicitly compiling with -mno-accumulate-outgoing-args does revert to the PUSH method, here.

2019 update: modern CPUs have had efficient push/pop since about Pentium M.
-mno-accumulate-outgoing-args (and using push) eventually became the default for -mtune=generic in Jan 2014.

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