404 error not being triggered for files with a php extension

Hi everyone, I'm using the most recent security patched version of apache (downloaded yesterday, v1.3 series), and most recent PHP (also downloaded yesterday), hoping to solve a problem that I'm having, to no avail. For some reason, when I request a file with a php extension that doesn't exist, apache doesn't check to see if it exists before sending it off to php.exe. Is there a way to fix this without switching to the module version of php? (if that will fix it). I'm pretty sure that it's a problem with apache, as it shouldn't even be *getting* to the php processor, but can't see where I've configured it incorrectly. non-existent htm, or html files all show the correct 404 error. Any hints, suggestions, tips, or voodoo spells I can use to fix this? Regards, Ian