Are you using the php/apache config out the box?
if so, it may already be complied as a module of php and you just need to enable it in your php.ini.
You can see if it is enabled in php with phpinfo().
You should see a line like
CURL support enabled
if you dont have it you can either find a module or recomiple php with libcurl support. (--with-curl)
btw, libcurl works great, I have never had a problem with it.