php authentication won't work

i need to make php authentication work (rather than htaccess or simple database authentication). since i have been utterly unable to make apache run on my win2k box, this option is out unfortunately (it installs, but totally refuses to start). in general, i have had considerable success with omnihttpd, but i cannot make php authentication work with it - it simply fails authentication every time. does anyone have successful experience with a win2k web server (NOT IIS or PWS please!!) that can do php authentication? i wonder if such a webserver will need to be able to read the php4isapi.dll - is this necessary to make php authentication work? i have also installed xitami, but i don't think it will work with this dll module. thanks, jd.