Hi;
About a year ago I also tried setting up this combination on my Win2000 server. I just wanted to see if it I could get it working. I couldn't get it to work either. It was the PHP with Apache thing that I just could not get going.
You probably don't want to consider losing more time learning something new but hear me out. Rather than trying to fit into the MS XP proprietary loop get UBUNTU linux (http://www.ubuntu.com/). Install it on an old machine (my web, php, mysql server, otherwise known as LAMP server, is an old Pentium 3 400 with 386 meg ram and it runs great. Oh I also run a samba server to connect to my other Windows/Game machines). The WIKI, community documentation (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Servers/)is great and covers all aspects of this exact setup in a step by step manner.
I have to say that I moved to Linux exactly because Microsoft does not play well with Open Source ideals (php,apache,mysql are all open source projects). I spent many many hours trying to make MS work with IIS, ASP, Frontpage, vbscript, etc on a limited budget but always ran into blockages where either I had to purchase some other peice of software or I needed to upgrade my hardware to be able to handle their programs. I got sick of it so I started exploring other options. I took the many, many lost hours and invested them in learning something new and I have never looked back (that was about seven years ago).
You are lucky in that now, finally, there is a version of linux that is fairly easy to install and use. It is extremely stable and the learning curve is a lot less than it was even one year ago.
In the end, I have put those wasted hours into learning how to create active web content instead of trying to figure out how to make MS wizards and bottle-necks bend to my needs.
I am a hand coder in that I like to have complete control of my scripting so I don't use a wysywig web creation program but that doesn't mean that you can't use one on your windows machine and just copy it to your Linux server via samba(windows shares).
Here is what I personally use.
For entering code I use an editor called Quanta+. For managing my MySQL server I use phpmyadmin. For apache I just edit the httpd.conf myself (a couple changes from the default is all I need).
There are a lot of web tools and advice out there in the Linux/Unix world since these OS's are the internet's backbone anyway.
If you want to know more I will be happy to provide links and any help I can to get you started.
You could be up and running with a web development server in just a few hours.
Think about it.(?)
Sorry for the rant, but I really think it was the best solution for me and I'm enthusiastic about the open source world as a result.
Just trying to help.
Good Luck.