i need help configuring MySQL to work with apache/php

hi, i've got
Apache 2.0.44 (Win32)
PHP 4.3.1
they're working fine, i'm a good coder and i'm usually good at configuring things on my own, but MySQL seems to be giving me shit

i don't want to install a triad package or a auto-configuration utility either, i don't need all that extra stuff, i just need help getting MySQL set up

i got
WinMySQLadmin 1.4 running

this is my site: http://krew.ath.cx/
the things i want to do seem to need more and more of a database rather than me just hard coding things, which i can do, but it's alot easier w/ a database