[root@spring php-5.3.0]# service httpd start
Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 190 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:
Cannot load /etc/httpd/modules/libphp5.so into server: /etc/httpd/modules/libphp5.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
[FAILED]
[root@spring php-5.3.0]# httpd -v
Server version: Apache/2.0.52
Server built: Dec 15 2005 04:09:14
[root@spring php-5.3.0]# php -v
PHP 5.3.0 (cli) (built: Sep 9 2009 21:23:02)
Copyright (c) 1997-2009 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2009 Zend Technologies
[root@spring php-5.3.0]#

you are using the command line interface version of php

the version that integrates with your webserver is a seperate package. I don't know what it's called in your repositories, but if you have a package manager, search for php packages you haven't installed.

yum list php
apt-cache search php
(depending on package manager)

On RHEL 4 that would be up2date, not yum
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-2531

You also have a syntax error on the indicated line. If you can't figure it out, post the httpd.conf (with numbered lines).

there is a bug on PHP 5.3.0. I tried PHP 5.2.10 and everything works fine.