Web Design in Php

This is the LAMP archetecture that is widely used. Linx, Apache, MySql, PHP. You can also do WAMP on a windows box. Which one are you configuring? The windows solution is easier to c0onfigure but less robust. for the Linux solution, your best bet is to install Mysql first, PHP second and then Apache third. Go to each of the web sites and refer to the manual there. mysql is at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/index.html
PHP is at http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php
and apache is at http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/

The reason for installing MySql first is so PHP sees it when it installs.