XP Pro, Apache, and PHP

Okay, I bought this book SAMS Teach Yourself, PHP, MySQL and Apache. I installed all applications accordingly. Edited config files, and moved around files accordingly. I referred to each app's site for FAQ and Installation inquiries. I tried different versions. Here are several my several instances.

First with EasyPHP. Of course installation was easy. A regular PHP tagged page with an echo of "Hello World" worked fine but when actually creating a page with PHP tags such as 'gettype' i get an error saying that PHP can not be parsed.

Second instance installing Apach 2.0.47 and PHP 4.3.11. Apache works fine until changing the LoadModule file so it can interact with PHP. Restart doesn't work.

Last instance installing lastest versions (no betas/alphas), Apache 2.0.54 and PHP 5.0.4. Doesn't seem like it's a clean install. Error read it could not read the path for the "dll" file. I changed the config file to the correct file of the file, but on the Admin Station for Apache there is no option to start/restart.

If anyonce can help it would be great. THANKS!!!