[UPDATED] I've collated everything I know about email address validation here: http://isemail.info, which now not only validates but also diagnoses problems with email addresses. I agree with many of the comments here that validation is only part of the answer; see my essay at http://isemail.info/about.
is_email() remains, as far as I know, the only validator that will tell you definitively whether a given string is a valid email address or not. I've upload a new version at http://isemail.info/
I collated test cases from Cal Henderson, Dave Child, Phil Haack, Doug Lovell, RFC5322 and RFC 3696. 275 test addresses in all. I ran all these tests against all the free validators I could find.
I'll try to keep this page up-to-date as people enhance their validators. Thanks to Cal, Michael, Dave, Paul and Phil for their help and co-operation in compiling these tests and constructive criticism of my own validator.
People should be aware of the errata against RFC 3696 in particular. Three of the canonical examples are in fact invalid addresses. And the maximum length of an address is 254 or 256 characters, not 320.
