diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index d52ed48fca1..bf7386366df 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 v39.2.0
 -------
 
+* #97: PEP 420: introduce find_packages_ns()
 * #1359: Support using "file:" to load a PEP 440-compliant package version from
   a text file.
 * #1360: Fixed issue with a mismatch between the name of the package and the
diff --git a/docs/setuptools.txt b/docs/setuptools.txt
index c82dc51133f..1d509a73c0d 100644
--- a/docs/setuptools.txt
+++ b/docs/setuptools.txt
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@ Feature Highlights:
 * Create extensible applications and frameworks that automatically discover
   extensions, using simple "entry points" declared in a project's setup script.
 
+* Full support for PEP 420 via ``find_packages_ns()``, which is also backwards
+  compatible to the existing ``find_packages()`` for Python >= 3.3.
+
 .. contents:: **Table of Contents**
 
 .. _ez_setup.py: `bootstrap module`_
@@ -107,6 +110,21 @@ As you can see, it doesn't take much to use setuptools in a project.
 Run that script in your project folder, alongside the Python packages
 you have developed.
 
+For Python 3.3+, and whenever you are using PEP 420 compliant implicit
+namespace packages, you can use ``find_packages_ns()`` instead.
+But keep in mind that if you do, you might have to either define a few 
+exclusions or reorganize your codebase a little bit so that the new function 
+does not find for example your test fixtures and treat them as implicit
+namespace packages. And here is a minimal setup script using 
+``find_packages_ns()``::
+
+    from setuptools import setup, find_packages_ns as find_packages
+    setup(
+        name="HelloWorld",
+        version="0.1",
+        packages=find_packages(),
+    )
+
 Invoke that script to produce eggs, upload to
 PyPI, and automatically include all packages in the directory where the
 setup.py lives.  See the `Command Reference`_ section below to see what
diff --git a/setuptools/__init__.py b/setuptools/__init__.py
index ce55ec351d0..a1613445c9b 100644
--- a/setuptools/__init__.py
+++ b/setuptools/__init__.py
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 """Extensions to the 'distutils' for large or complex distributions"""
 
 import os
+import sys
 import functools
 import distutils.core
 import distutils.filelist
 from distutils.util import convert_path
 from fnmatch import fnmatchcase
 
+from setuptools.extern.six import PY3
 from setuptools.extern.six.moves import filter, map
 
 import setuptools.version
@@ -17,11 +19,15 @@
 
 __metaclass__ = type
 
+
 __all__ = [
     'setup', 'Distribution', 'Feature', 'Command', 'Extension', 'Require',
-    'find_packages',
+    'find_packages'
 ]
 
+if PY3:
+  __all__.append('find_packages_ns')
+
 __version__ = setuptools.version.__version__
 
 bootstrap_install_from = None
@@ -110,6 +116,7 @@ def _looks_like_package(path):
 
 
 find_packages = PackageFinder.find
+find_packages_ns = PEP420PackageFinder.find
 
 
 def _install_setup_requires(attrs):
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/test_find_packages.py b/setuptools/tests/test_find_packages.py
index a6023de9d5a..02ae5a946dc 100644
--- a/setuptools/tests/test_find_packages.py
+++ b/setuptools/tests/test_find_packages.py
@@ -7,14 +7,15 @@
 
 import pytest
 
-import setuptools
+from setuptools.extern.six import PY3
 from setuptools import find_packages
 
-find_420_packages = setuptools.PEP420PackageFinder.find
+py3_only = pytest.mark.xfail(not PY3, reason="Test runs on Python 3 only")
+if PY3:
+  from setuptools import find_packages_ns
 
 # modeled after CPython's test.support.can_symlink
 
-
 def can_symlink():
     TESTFN = tempfile.mktemp()
     symlink_path = TESTFN + "can_symlink"
@@ -153,30 +154,35 @@ def test_symlinked_packages_are_included(self):
     def _assert_packages(self, actual, expected):
         assert set(actual) == set(expected)
 
+    @py3_only
     def test_pep420_ns_package(self):
-        packages = find_420_packages(
+        packages = find_packages_ns(
             self.dist_dir, include=['pkg*'], exclude=['pkg.subpkg.assets'])
         self._assert_packages(packages, ['pkg', 'pkg.nspkg', 'pkg.subpkg'])
 
+    @py3_only
     def test_pep420_ns_package_no_includes(self):
-        packages = find_420_packages(
+        packages = find_packages_ns(
             self.dist_dir, exclude=['pkg.subpkg.assets'])
         self._assert_packages(packages, ['docs', 'pkg', 'pkg.nspkg', 'pkg.subpkg'])
 
+    @py3_only
     def test_pep420_ns_package_no_includes_or_excludes(self):
-        packages = find_420_packages(self.dist_dir)
-        expected = [
-            'docs', 'pkg', 'pkg.nspkg', 'pkg.subpkg', 'pkg.subpkg.assets']
+        packages = find_packages_ns(self.dist_dir)
+        expected = ['docs', 'pkg', 'pkg.nspkg', 'pkg.subpkg', 'pkg.subpkg.assets']
         self._assert_packages(packages, expected)
 
+    @py3_only
     def test_regular_package_with_nested_pep420_ns_packages(self):
         self._touch('__init__.py', self.pkg_dir)
-        packages = find_420_packages(
+        packages = find_packages_ns(
             self.dist_dir, exclude=['docs', 'pkg.subpkg.assets'])
         self._assert_packages(packages, ['pkg', 'pkg.nspkg', 'pkg.subpkg'])
 
+    @py3_only
     def test_pep420_ns_package_no_non_package_dirs(self):
         shutil.rmtree(self.docs_dir)
         shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(self.dist_dir, 'pkg/subpkg/assets'))
-        packages = find_420_packages(self.dist_dir)
+        packages = find_packages_ns(self.dist_dir)
         self._assert_packages(packages, ['pkg', 'pkg.nspkg', 'pkg.subpkg'])
+