Hello there,
I recommend that you would take a look on website of PHP and MySQL.
PHP: www.php.net
MySQL: www.mysql.com
They don't require much from hardware, I have run both of them in P333/64Mb/1,5Gt. When you are using PHP, you need also a web server (of course) and I have found Apache very good for this job (www.apache.org). Anyway, they are very good and practical programs in my opinion! Especially they can be linked each other very well. And all of them are free and can be used in WinNT too.
Cheers,
Ville Mattila
Ikaalinen, Finland