diff --git a/packages/google-cloud-compute/tests/system/test_smoke.py b/packages/google-cloud-compute/tests/system/test_smoke.py
index 412d02065592..9f999fbc3cb9 100644
--- a/packages/google-cloud-compute/tests/system/test_smoke.py
+++ b/packages/google-cloud-compute/tests/system/test_smoke.py
@@ -79,11 +79,7 @@ def test_zero_values(self):
         with self.assertRaises(expected_exception=TypeError) as ex:
             self.client.get(instance=self.name, zone=0)
         self.assertIn(
-            (
-                "0 has type int, but expected one of: bytes, unicode"
-                if PROTOBUF_VERSION[0] == "3"
-                else "('bad argument type for built-in operation',)"
-            ),
+            ("bad argument type for built-in operation"),
             str(ex.exception.args),
         )