Comparing DateTimes: DateTime.Compare() versus relational operators

Here are two ways of comparing two DateTimes:

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime then = new DateTime(2008, 8, 1);

// Method 1
if (DateTime.Compare(then, now) < 0)
    // ...

// Method 2
if (then < now)
    // ...

.Compare returns an integer (-1,0,1) indicating whether the first instance is earlier than, the same as, or later than the second instance.

My question is, why would I use .Compare when I can use relational operators (<,<=,==,>=,>) directly? It seems to me, using .Compare, I need to employ relational operators anyway (at least in the above example; alternatively I could create a switch statement examining cases -1, 0 and 1).

What situations would prefer or require usage of DateTime.Compare()?