Sorry, I was wrong, Apache2 runs with php-4.2.1; it was a userId starting service issue (O.S. NT4); I confirm that same MySQL queries runs much slower than with 4.0.6.
and beside I have to force use of named pipes instead of TCP/IP to run faster.
It is not a MySQL issue, because with other clients i get better response times with TCP/IP.
Thanks for any ideas.
Davide.