Thanks to exceptional work by Serghei Amelian KDE3 has recently gained an Udisks2 backend (earlier than KDE4 did btw!). The Udisks2 backend is capable of operation autonomously or in conjunction with udisks-glue. Unfortunately the autonomous operation is still not perfect and requires altered polkit rules.
To switch the Udisks2 backend on and off, go to Peripherals->Storage Media->Advanced in KDE control center.