Here's a way to do it in Python without NumPy. Create a function that returns what you want and use a list comprehension, or the map function.
>>> a = [1, 2, 3, -4, 5]
>>> def zero_if_negative(x):
... if x < 0:
... return 0
... return x
...
>>> [zero_if_negative(x) for x in a]
[1, 2, 3, 0, 5]
>>> map(zero_if_negative, a)
[1, 2, 3, 0, 5]