a newer "benchmark", altough the load is yet too light: http://benchw.sourceforge.net/benchw_results_open3.html
using the newest beta version of each Database.
You can use the insanely fast MyISAM if you don't need e.g. foreign keys or row-level locking.
i *must* disagree on that, but for me an RDBMS ( lil'troll says: "assuming mySQL would qualify as such" ) must be reliable, not "insanely fast" ( the hardware should be fast, the software must be reliable )... and reliability means Referential Integrity, locks, and hot backups; hence, MyISAM tables should be scorched from the face of Earth, and we should never, ever, talk about them again... 
PHP does not ask for the MySQL install path during compilation. Where did you get that from? In PHP4, the MySQL client library was bundled with PHP and therefore it made sense to enable the extension by default.
yes, you're right, of course... that's what i couldn't remember, there *is* a bundled mySQL into PHP4... sorry, got confused.
In PHP5, it is no longer bundled and in order to use MySQL with PHP5, you have to explicitly tell configure that you want it (--with-mysql=/path/to/mysql).
hey, that GREAT news ( obviously i haven't been following PHP5 development )... if i don't want mysql on my server, why the scripting language should have that overhead ?!... hmmm... as soon as i find some spare time i might have some PHP5 testing to do...
I guess this turned into a flame war after all. Oh well, a flame a day keeps the doctor away.
not at all, we haven't even called each other names, yet.... 
oh, one more thing, ( just a matter of personal preference ) before i forget, i really hate software i can't just "./configure && gmake && gmake install"... mySQL install process used to be waaaay too different ( also is sapDB/maxDB/whatever ), i don't know how it is nowadays.