LinuxQuestions.org - cannot install PHPMYADMIN MySQL Extention will not load

I'm new to linux and I am setting up a simple server with several different functions. I am running Fedora Core I, with all the updates installed at they get pushed out.

I have apache installed and running just fine:
Server version: Apache/2.0.49
Server built: May 7 2004 12:14:34

I have perl installed (came installed with Fedora):
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 8 subversion 3) configuration:

I got MySQL installed. The install did not go smoothly(the tar.gz file didn't seem to put everything where the docmentation said it would) None the less, I have it up and running from a command line:
mysql> select version(), current_date;
+----------------+--------------------+
| version() | current_date |
+----------------+--------------------+
| 4.0.20-Max-log | 2004-06-02 |
+----------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.24 sec)

Now, I used phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-alpha2.tar.gz to install PHPMYADMIN. I followed their instructions and moved the folder to my web server document root /var/www/html/

When I try to load of the main page of phpmyadmin in my web browers, I get the following:

cannot load mysql extension,
please check PHP Configuration
Documentation

I did some resarch, which talked about needing a file called mysl.so Do you think this is the case? If so, where can I get it and how can I get it installed/compiled/whatever in the right spot? Thanks for your help

IF you need more info, please just let me know and tell me how to get what you need. I really appreciate your help.

PS: Finally got the phpinfo() thing to work. I have PHP 4.3.6