i had the same problem when i wanted to install it. instead of downloading and installing apache download apache package, this package has a lot of server needed softwares (all free) and are very easy to install, just click the setup file and you don't have to do any thing else. two packages i like most are

1= Xampp (about 25mb size) it has a lot of software like mercurymail zend and filezilla and 12 other, it comes with php and if you want to download an additional patch(20mb). i personaly use it.

2=apache2triad (about 75mb size) it is all install package with 20 softwares including php and perl, no additional downloads. only problem with it why i quit it was i creats another user account to control this server, from that account you are almost not able to do anything else while Xampp does not do this.

i forgot exact links so please search google for them